LOYAL INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 94, 16 September 1914, Page 3

LOYAL INDIA.

FINE FIGHTING MEN. MISSIONARY'S OPINION. Melbourne, September 4. How the Moslems of India are likely to be affected by the war, and hew far they would respond to a call to the standard of Islam frcm the Sultan of Turkey, were questions which Mr. X. C. Nal.', who has charge of a large mission station at liiri Siri, Mymensingh, Eastern Bengal, but is now in Melbourne, gave reassuring answers to-day. He does not think that hostility will he shown by the Moslems of India. SEDITIONISTS FEW. "I have been asked those serious questions again and again," said Mr. Nail, "and, for my own part, I have thought over the position in which my loeum tenens, the Rev. L. Barber, finds himself. At liiri Siri, he is thirty-five miles from another white man; but, in my judgment, he is quite safe—that is, ,e far as danger arising from the war is concerned.

"There are seditionists in India, hut their number is very small compared with the mass of the population. Seditionists are not popular. That may seem strange, because they always find refuge after a dacoity or homb-throw- ] ing. The reason for this is that if one assists the police against such men lie is in danger of reprisals. Even if one were willing to give evidence, he might have to travel a long distant , again and again to do so. It cc' does not pay anybody to Ik' y lice in India. 1 r nil + i' -*' ms t0 m c, are loyal as far , t r Understand what loyalty means, x'hoy know little of the horrors of w&rsince most 0/ the people who remember jtheMut,',;;.':: vfidied ' Hindu has lived under the rax aU " niea. He is not particularly grateful, j because he knows no other'state, but lie is vaguely loyal.

SWADESHI MOVEMENT DIES. "What sedition exists is mostly a relic of the Swadeshi movement, India for the Indians cry, which lias now been aban- [ d ° n , cd - , 1,1 Swadeshi the Hindus are wilder than the Mahometans. Indeed in Eastern Bengal, tile Government protected Mahometans from the enmity of the Swadeshi Hindus, whom they refused to join. The Government opened banks and gave tlie Mahometans cheap money—cheap, that is, for India—which they badly needed,'' and which the Hindu bankers refused them.

I *'l saw it reported that the Hindus | were praying in the mosques for the success of Great Britain. Hindus do not, lof course, enter mosques; but if the statement referred to the Mahometans, then they are realy desirous of our success. "My belief is that the Indians recognise that Great Britain is enduring a stress, and I feel that that very stress will deepen the loyalty of the mass of the people. PATIIAXS v. PRUSSIANS. "As to the Indians going to the war, the. Pathans, Sikhs, Gurkhas and llajputs are line fighting men, who will glvs an account of themselves against any Europeans. It is a guess, of course, but I do not doubt that 100,000 men could easily be raised. The Gurkhas admit that if the British are well trained they might fight as well as Gurkhas, but they admit it with some reservation. A regiment of Punjabis was in our town. They arc magnificent men. They towered above the Bengalis. If they fight beside English soldiers Indian loyalty will certainly be strengthened. "The feeling of India towards England is so strong that 1 do not think Egyption clamor will affect it.

' Turkey, too, is greatly discredited in India, owing to the ineffective way slie fought in late wars, >She is so much discredited that even a 'Leekum' from the Sultan would probably not bave much influence. It would, at worst, receive but a languid welcome. AUSTRALIANS NOT WASTED. "Australians would not be welcomed in India. It would, I think, be a serious mistake to send Australian troops there. The educated Hindus are numerous. At one matriculation examination of a university there were 11,000 candidates. These" educated Hindus bitterly object to their exclusion from Australia."