GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1922, Page 5

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

BRITAIN’S LOST PRESTIGE. DARK VIEW OF FUTURE. The white man has lost his prestige in India, according to Captain C. G. R. Barnes, an Indian Army officer, who was interviewed in Sydney. India, he said, must eventually get self-government, but for this she was utterly unfitted, and would probably rival Ireland in the extent of her internal disorders. Captain Barnes went with the Waziristan Field Force to the North-west frontier to straighten up a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs. The native troops who were supposed to guard the frontier had severed their allegiance, and gone off with their machine-guns and other equipment. They were promised a “thrashing” when the British had time, and that time coincided with the arrival of the Waziristan Field Force. The natives had been well trained in the use of the arms which they had taken, and. in Captain Barnes’ words, the force “had a lot fun” in putting things straight. The exodus of the British from India had commenced, said Captain Barnes. Such was the state of affairs that members of the Army and of the Civil Service were becoming “fed up” with their jobs, and were being relieved of themIt was a lamentable fact that the Indians as a whole were quite unfit to govern themselves. The great majority took practically no interest in politics, and the clamour for self-government came chiefly from a small band of agitators. A great deal of the damage was being done, not by Indians themselves, but by extremist white people, who were pressing them to demand rights to which they had never aspired. The Indian, said Captain Barnes, had an astonishing capacity for absorbing knowledge, but little ability to apply it. Thus, men holding high university distinctions were often capable of filling only the most subordinate positions. If self-government came to India tomorrow, the masses would be almost inarticulate, and such would be the hostility of tribe and caste that chaos would result.