THE PROBLEM OF INDIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17973, 19 March 1930, Page 7

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In your Saturday's issue appears a short comment on recent de\clopments in India, followed up h,\ an an extract from an English paper. That the line of argument pursued and the conclusions deduced therefrom are unsound, misleading and unjust, it is my purpose to prove. The reference made to India as the keystone of the British Empire and the intimation of the seriousness of our loss, should trade with India become impossible cannot toe considered as an overdrawn picture. Yet why co-relate this realisation with the supposed need for a still more repressive policy in India? We have heard that the Nationalists have grown impatient of the British regime, and that Gandhi with a following of a few hundred thousand faithfuls is determined to set out his ■own demands in black and white with every intention of forcing the hand of Britain by means of boycotting, disobedience, etc.; but because this more fanatic section of the mass of loyal, peaceful and law-abiding citizens of India have succeeded in gaining a very disproportionate notoriety for their apparently ill-considered campaign, nourished as it is by starvation, ignorance and a keen resentment to their treatment as inferiors, can it be that we on so slight a ground are going to allow ourselves to be swayed like the pendulum into dishonouring the people of India by imputing that they are little better than savages and lawless rebels, concluding as a logical sequence that our only answer to wtiat wo should •have recognised as a mighty and unsuppressable awakening of an inherently great people, must necessarily be to put up the mailed fist and challenge to battle? By all means let there be law and order where violence is offered, for such is the duty of government and, as such, is assured of the support of all the responsible forces and the mass of the people; but who, with any foresight and understanding of human nature, could really believe that the upheaval in India or anywhere. else can ever be finally subdued unless the Government combines with its firmness a readiness to grant all that is fair and just? If, in fear of loss of profits and property, we as a ruling class continue to adopt a distrustful attitude toward our subjects and their ability (o govern themselves, we must in time alienate all loyally and sympathy; then, with the loss of friendship, our loss in all other respects may well be complete. Let there be no mistake, the sorry policy which brought about the loss of United States of America from our Empire is still rampant among us, and much clear flunking will be needed to guide the nation through the breakers of disruption into serener waters of contentment. I have not space here to give a host of facts and figures in support of my contentions, but am prepared at any lime to do so should the need arise.—l am, etc., R. E. HANSEN. March 17.