The Daily News SATURDAY, JULY 10. THE PROBLEM OF INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 138, 10 July 1909, Page 2

The Daily News SATURDAY, JULY 10. THE PROBLEM OF INDIA.

The latest assassination of an importiui Indian official in London by an India anarchist will probably divert the a I tention of the people of Britain froi tlie German menace and direct it I the " Indian Peril." A number of peopl who profess to know, who from the] association with Indian peoples ough to know, have for some time been pen ning warnings to British statesmen an the British public that there is an " In dian Peril," and a grave one. There i ,a school of sedition in India which th most optimistic of writers do not pro fess to think contemptible, and other who do not appear to be unduly pessi mistic regard it with acute concert Lord Morley, as Secretary of State fo India, in December last proposed eei tain reforms in the constitution of In dia, local and general; but even thes< were used by certain sections of th l public as fuel for the fire of sedition because they fell short of what the; declared to be their due, and because o an apparently unavoidable disparity ii the respective shares of responsibility and powers allotted to the two grea religious divisions in India. These pro posals came also too i*ie. *nt.y year ago Queen Victoria caused liberal pro mises to be made to the people of India promises which have not been kept am are not fulfilled by Lord Morley's re forms. la that 50 years we have educat ed a considerable percentage of the In dian people; many thousands of then are highly educated. Thought thci probably do not understand patriotisn precisely as wc do, it is impossible t( hide from oneself the probability thai these educated Indians, drilled in Britisl history in their high school and uni versity days, feel that their country ii not being governed in British fashion | The Indian, especially the Hindu, is i shrewd, but not a sturdy-minded, per son, and like the weak in all circum stances is sure to adopt underlmn( rather than open methods of seekinj to gain his ends. The discontented un employed aspirants for public employ ment, and there are many such, becom< agents of sedition, and while they kiov how to manufacture "wrongs" lor as similation by the whole people, imnsei with all the bitterness of their persona disappointments, there is no correspond ing agency at work to counteract thei teaching. The "vernacular press" i very largely used to foment discontcn with British rule, and the majority o tlie readers of these native ne\v»pai,<-.:- > probably see no others. In the days o the East India Company tlie director Iwere warned that a free press as un derstood in Britain, even in Europeai hands, was incompatible with the domi nation of the country by strangers, aii the two could not long exist togethei But apart from the influence of th press, more potent still within the limit a of its influence is the personal uppea of the inflammatory speakers, and th ' police force of India is entirely inadr quate to prevent the spread of aeditio: by this means. To shut down the mis chief-making native newspapers noi would do little or no good; the agitato is abroad, preaching what he calls patri otism; holding up to scorn and angu; what his hearers are prepared to con sider bad results of British domination: declaring that what may be considered good results could be bettered by Home Rule. Sir E. C. Fox, formerly DeputyInspector General of Police in Bombay 1 Presidency, not long ago declared that " India is seething with sedition. India is tired of us, and desires to be done with us. To the educated and pauiuu: Indian it is a matter of supreme ra difference whether British administra tion in India is good, had, or indiffev cut. It is sufficient for him that it i foreign, and, in logical conclusion, mus be got rid of. If bombs can hasten th process, by all means use bombs." An, bombs they are using, as a people to weal; to be trusted must be expecte, to do Sir Edmund Cox pointed on that the British have given India a the appliances 0 f civilisation, includh, a common language for the educate, tat have been unable to give the peopl of India the character required for , P II government. The Indians cannot reeo. mse this; they resolutely s |„ lt t h»i O.VOH to the danger of internecine war which would inevital.lv rage were Hi controlling authority over all wit<i drawn; and, taking courage from th victory of one brown race over a whit in the Russo-Japanese war, dream o making good the cry of "India for th J Indians."