DISORDERS IN INDIA

Southland Times, Issue 24819, 11 August 1942, Page 5

DISORDERS IN INDIA

MANY ARRESTS (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 10. The Daily Telegraph says that more than 250 persons have been arrested in disorders in Bombay, Allahabad, Ahmadabad, Lahore and Nagpur. The New Delhi correspondent of The Daily Express says the Government is increasing the railway workers’ living allowances at an annual cost of £4,000,000. This aims at ensuring the loyalty of vital transport workers. The speed with which the new allowances were sanctioned and the magnitude of their scale are unprecedented in India. All the members of the Working Committee who attended the recent meeting of the Congress Committee have been arrested. Mrs Gandhi and Gandhi’s British disciple, Miraben (Miss Madeleine Slade) have also been detained. . Mr Gandhi has been interned in the private bungalow at Poona known as the Aga Khan palace. The police at Patna locked up the local office of the Congress Committee and arrested Purushottamdas Tandon, Speaker of the United Provinces’ Assembly, and Dr Rajendra Prasad, a member of the Congress Working Committee and a former president of the Congress. CONGRESS OFFICES RAIDED

The Congress offices at New .Delhi were raided and several arrests made on the premises. The number of Congress leaders arrested in Bombay included the Mayor of Bombay, Meher Ali. ~ . Only one British member, besides the Viceroy (the Marquess of Linlithgow), was present when the Viceroy’s Council decided to make the arrests. The other 11 members were Indians. Mr Jinnah, president of the Moslem League, has appealed to Moslems to keep completely aloof from the Congress movement until the Moslem League Working Committee reaches its decisions next Sunday. He also warned Congress Party members not to interfere with, molest, harass or picket Moslems.

The Government of India by “cutting out the fuse leading from the archsaboteurs to the all-inflammable explosive material they hoped to set alight” had saved India and the Allied cause from grave disaster, said Mr L. S. Amery, Secretary for India, in a broadcast. He believed any trouble there might be there could be dealt with by the police and the courts. The Government, of which 11 of the 15 members were Indians, for acting with courage and promptitude in asserting its responsibility for the peace and defence of the country, deserved the gratitude of India, the Empire and the United Nations. CONGRESS DEMANDS Referring to the earlier negotiations in India, Mr Amery said they had broken down mainly because of the “all or nothing” attitude of the Congress leaders, who demanded that India should be handed over to a group of politicians responsible to nobody. This would have been a negation of democracy and would not have been accepttable to 95,000,000 Moslems nor to many other elements. Congress had come to regard itself as the only party entitled to take over, regardless of the views of all others. Mr Gandhi had calculated on an open clash with the Government to arouse mass emotions and so retain prestige for himself and his associates and focus attention upon themselves as the champions of India against British oppression. Although many crowds in Bombay, where demonstrations have broken out, were dispersed by tear gas and also by mild lathi (baton) charges, the crowds continued to collect and to stone buildings, trams and buses. Crowds in many i areas are stopping traffic. Many people are abandoning their conveyances and walking. Mobile police squads are constantly dispersing crowds. Some shopping areas have been completely closed. British and Americans are booed amid shouts of “Quit India. Boycott British goods! Boycott American goods!” It is officially announced that two Government grain shops in Bombay have been looted, buses have been set on fire and police, especially European police officers, have been assaulted. POLICE OPEN FIRE The police have fired on unruly crowds in five localities. Fifteen persons so far have been sent to hospital with bullet wounds. The police fired on the demonstrators in Bombay after stones and bottles had been thrown. The shots were fired directly into the menacing groups, which refused to disband.

The police have cordoned the Bombay terminal railway station. One person was killed and one was injured when the police fired on stone throwers at Ahmadabad. An attempt was made to set fire to a police post. The Ahmadabad, Raipur and Khadia areas have had a curfew imposed on them for seven days. A Congress flag salutation ceremony at the Congress Committee marquees at Bombay had been announced for this morning, but long before the volunteers assembled the police had taken possession of the grounds and called on the gathering crowds to disperse. Repeated warnings met with no response, whereupon the police dispersed the crowd by baton charges and tear gas. The Bombay police this evening were still endeavouring to disperse the crowd at Shaviji Park, where Mr Gandhi had been scheduled to speak. Tear gas lathis were repeatedly used.