THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1908. ENGLAND'S PERIL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9142, 18 July 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1908. ENGLAND'S PERIL.

One cannot look over the world and see the unrest in' so many various regions without a serious fear that there are stormy times ahead for thq British Empire; and the centre of it is the most important of her conquered colonies, India, writes the New York "Independent." There is no immediate or prospective danger in Canada, Australia, or New Zeaand. Great Brituin has learned her lessoh well, and will never repeat her blunder which gave independence to the Unted States. She will allow her colonies of British blood and will to rule themselves. They will be practically as independent as if they were separate nations, and this allows them sentimental connection, with the Mother Country. But it is different, far different, with India, and in a measure with South Africa. In both countries the natives outnumber overwhelmingly their British rulers. That makes no difference so long as

they remain ignorant and therefore weak. But in India, as in Russia, education is rapidly advancing, and knowledge is power. Every evidence shows a general discontent, at least among the Hindus, with the British rule. The trust' of the British is in the long antipathy between the sixty million Mohammedans and the nearly two hundred million Hindus.. It was the cruel Mohammedan conquest that created that antipathy, but there are signs that old enemies may unite now against their common conqueror. While it is not true that the bulk of Hindus are violently opposed to the English to the limit of revolution, yet extremists are not few, and there is hostility of a milder sort with nesily all the rest; audit is a matter of experience that the movement is always in the radical direction. And all this is the fruit of education. Education teaches discontent. Every missionary school in India, as in Turkey, is necessarily a fomenter of discontent, and every Government school as well. That is what education is for. As soon as a people get education they want to better themselves and govern them selves. The English literature taught in every school is an engine of liberty. It must be that Hindus will be restive under foreign rule. Why should Europe rule Asia? But does not Great Britain rule India well? Doubtless better than she was ever ruled in her history before. There is less oppression, and we do not believe there are heavier taxes or more famines. The tax in India is but a third of what the Japanese have to pay. Tne families, bad as they are, are not as bad as they are in China to-day, or as they used to be, if we can trust the old literature of India. Great Britain has supplied a magnificent system of highways and railroads. She is creating extensive systems of irrigation and planting forests which supply resources for the crowded population. The courts of India are admirable, and the poor net justice. Then why do the people complain? It is not difficult to tell. It is not the British Government in India; it is the British people themselves. They rule the people fairly well but they do nut treat them well. The individual "Britisher" meets the individual native with a kick or a stick. The Englishman in India look down on the native as an inferior, to be treated with insolence or contempt. Insolence breeds hatred. The time, will come when India will not longer endure rule without full representation. Without both liberty and sympathy the days of Great Britain in India are numbered, and no huge army can prevent it.