INDIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 114, 6 January 1932, Page 4

INDIA

Current happenings in India provide another encouraging sign that Great Britain possesses once more a Government capable of seeing straightly and acting strongly and swiftly. What must now be done in India if the damage to the best interests oi both the British Raj and the native peoples resulting fro;n the weaknesses of the recent past is to be repaired is not likely to be a particularly pleasant task for those upon whom the responsibility will fall, but it is inescapable. It is always painful to see the innocent dupe suffer for the crimes of the charlatan, particularly the political charlatan of the Gandhi type, and it is an interesting example of the irony of fate that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, to the wishy-washy sentimentalism of whose two Socialist administrations most of India's present troubles are due, is head of the Government upon which has fallen the cluty of attempting to repair the damage. Perhaps the lesson will not be lost on others inclined to similar benevolencies. It is idle to speculate upon what might have happened had the^ Labour Party still been in power at Home. It begins to be obvious, however, that further weakness in dealing with the theatrical Mr. Gandhi and his associates would probably bring nothing but swift disaster. As things are, what must be done by the Government of India will call for the exercise of tact and statesmansbip of the very highest quality by those directly responsible for the re-establishment of peace and order in that troubled land. Fortunately the Indian Civil Service has to guide it the loftiest traditions and an extraordinarily wide and deep body of experience in the art and science of the government of the Indian peoples. Adequately supported, as there is now reason to anticipate that they will be, the men upon whom will fall the executive duty of bringing the great Indian Empire back to the paths of peace and progress may be trusted to do their work both faithfully and well.