The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1911. HISTORIC DELHI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 19 December 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1911. HISTORIC DELHI.

Delhi, the historic centre of ancient India, has come into its own again, but under an alien ruler.' The removal of the seat of Government from commercial Calcutta, the most "Europeanised" of all the teeming cities of the vast Indian Empire, is a diplomatic experiment consonant with that other great diplomatic move, the crowning of the King as Emperor of India in India itself. The natives of India—or, shall we say, the people of the various nations composing India?—have a history of such grandeur and antiquity that the history of the European peoples is palo and insignificant in comparison. The native mind, the many native minds, turn to historic Delhi with a reverence unknown to people guided less by the mysterious) past and ancient usage, and it is only by long, careful and sympathetic examination of the unexpressed and inexpressible adherence to age-old belief and convention that the Britisher has come to see a little way into the heart of Hindustan. It is becoming increasingly necessary in an Empire too vast for the conception of Xew Zealanders living in an empty country for the Hindoo himself to take a greater hand in the guidance of Indian affairs, and, because Calcutta docs not concern itself with the aspirations and the deep sensitiveness of the Indian people, it has been deemed to be unfit to remain the seat of Government. The assumption by the removal of the capital to Delhi is that King George takes up the work as virtual ruler laid down by the ancient capital of the Empire, and it is not beyond the religious belief of a people who are so curiously alert in su many mysterious ways, but so extraordinary conservative in all that pertains *• flke past, that here is in the very flesh the rightful successor of the ancient kings. The extreme care with which the gorgeous ceremony has been carried out is by way of emphasising in every possible way the kindly paramountcy of the Emperor, and the selection of Delhi •is the capital is an acknowledgment by the British Raj of the improved status of the Emperor's colored subjects. Th« Government of India by Britain is not an iron domination. It is merely a kindly assistance by the British Government to the great Indian potentates who formerly held the lives of their subjects in their hands. The whole system of the Government in India is based on the acknowledged supremacy of the British Raj and the minute attention to

ceremonial etiquette between the native people and the white man is carefully insisted on. No Britisher of any rank is permitted to acknowledge the superiority of any native, be he prince or babu, and no British soldier is permitted to salute a native officer. By a rigorous system' of etiquette, and the most careful regard for every native sensibility and religious belief, the British have succeeded in eliminating much of the friction between the extraordinarily varied human elements. What is generally called the "unrest" in India has been magnified without doubt by the freer dissemination of news, the ease of flashing messages across the earth, the intolerable presumption of an upstart here or there who desires to advertia-e himself. There has always been unrest in India. It is as impossible for three hundred millions of people of varying beliefs, creeds and bloods to be completely restful, as it is for the sea to cease its ebb and blow. The success of Britain in India is one of the miracles of the world. The extreme caution of British administration in India is shown by the extraordinary care with which its tivil servants, from judges to clerks, are chosen. It is so very necessary for every British official to have the entire respect of the native that any lessening of this care might be disastrous. The removal of the capital to Delhi is a matter that has been thought out with infinite pains, and is by way of presenting to the people of India an Indian city for their capital, as distinct from a city that is in most respects European, and where the rush for the dollars is a far more important matter than the just government of teeming myriads of people whose loyalty it is so necessary to maintained. It is to be remembered that the ancient races of India show no signs, as do the white races, of diminution. There is no "race suicide" problem there, and the people either at home in> In<lia or abroad are prolific. The problem of government, therefore, becomes infinitely more difficult year by year, and the greater assistance by the people in the management of their own affairs is necessary. There is no doubt that the removal of the capital is an extension of a great scheme towards a wider independence and self-government, for it has been the special riiethod of the British Government to virtually "train" the great rajahs in the arts and methods of government. The native rulers themselves, in the abundance of their wealth, have been easily persuaded to follow the British example in the matter of reforms, and have, indeed, poured out gold like water to further every good scheme. The essential necessity of frustrating every outbreak of nationalism is recognised by the nation rulers, and it is only because of the deliberate and honoraWe conduct of the British Government that these rulers have been absolutely won for the British Crown.