INDIA’S TROUBLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 987, 2 June 1930, Page 12

INDIA’S TROUBLES

WHERE ARE OUTRAGES HEADING? WORK OF SOVIET RUSSIA •'What have we to fear in India? 1 don’t think there is any real danger of a nation-wide, aimed rebellion. but there will be a policy of outrage and violence.” T> RIG ADIEU-GEXERAL PA LMER. a former Judge Advocate-General in India and a soldier in the Indian Army, who is now visiting Auckland, gave this opinion in an address to the Rotary Club this afternoon. Ilis subject was -Present Conditions in India.” The agitators now in'darning the people defined their policy in something of this way. Brigadier-General Palmer remarked. They said:—“We don’t propose to light you. because you are too strong, but we are going to terrorise every European and make his life and those of his wife and children a continual danger, so that you will have to leave our country.” That policy was now being put into practice. That was the reason why the present outrages were being enacted. “I confess they are not as extensive as J had expected by this time, but they are serious enough,” Briga-dier-General Palmer said. “Don’t go altogether by headlines,” he counselled. Quoting from a weekly Indian paper which he receives, the speaker pointed out that the attacks and outrages were scattered throughout the country and had no common seat. The objective was a severance with the Imperial Government and affiliation with the Soviet Union. Russia had always- been and still was a real bogey. The speaker did not, however,-think there would be an invasion by that nation. What of the future? It seemed impossible to go back to the days when England ruled with a firm hand. Why not let India “have a go” at selfGovernment? * Apart from ’ the fact that Englishmen would be turned out and could not be left to herself because internal dissension and anarchy would break loose. “You cannot, therefore, put a ring fence round the country and say ‘let them fight it out,’ ” Briga-dier-General Palmer said. “What is the solution? God only knows; I haven’t yet found anybody with a remedy,” the speaked concluded. ENGLISHMEN HATED Hatred of the Imperial Government meant hatred of the Englishman. Gandhi had cleverly invented the phrase, “the devilish Government.” Tie saw that it was bandied about until the people began to believe it completely, Who were with Britain and who were against? Broadly, there were three divisions, Hindus, numbering 220,000.000, Mohammedans, 50,000,000, outcasts (which include the Christian natives). C 0,000,000. The two lastnamed divisions, for the most part, were with the Imperial Government, though discontented. But the Hindus were in the majority. Most of the Indian princes—autocratic rulers of their little States —were on the side of Britain, chiefly because they had an affection for the Sovereign, though not necessarily the Government. Further, it was in their interests to be loyal.