AFFAIRS IN INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1921, Page 5

AFFAIRS IN INDIA.

AFGHAN SPY’S PLANS.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn Copyright. Delhi, May 14. A vernacular paper at Simla recently published an article regarding the visit of an Afghan spy to India a year ago, alleging that the spy first .saw Pundit Maliviya and afterwards the Ali brothers and Ghandi. The Ali brothers and Ghandi issued an emphatic denial. Malaviya, who is a prominent Nationalist leader, but an opponent of non co-operation, states that the Afghan came to him at Benares about a year ago and said that he had been sent by leading Afghans who, with the Amir, were watching the fight of the Indians against the British Government sympathetically. The Afghans were willing to come to the help of the Indians, but wanted to know how far they could rely on Hindu support. Malaviya replied that, though the Indians had many grievances against the British Government yet, if the Afghans invaded India, he believed every Hindu, the bulk of the Mohammedans

and every Indian State would array themselves on the side of the Government to repel the invaders, who would be easily defeated. Therefore he advised the men who sent him to abandon the idea of war and invasion of India, which would be a national folly and crime on the part of the Afghan Government. —Reuter.

Delhi, May 14.

The position on the frontier is practically unchanged. There has been a slight falling off in the raids owing to the intense heat and the tendency of tribesmen to migrate to cooler and better watered regions. The recent re-

crudescence of attacks on convoys is due to the shortage of food and transfrontier propaganda, also to the anxiety of tribesmen to secure supplies before moving to the higher hills for summer. The Wazirs are still active, but General Matherson is taking every precaution to keep them in check.—Reuter.