INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 96, 22 April 1904, Page 3

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

THE PLAGUE. NATIONAL CONGRESS. Considering the amount of alarm that was caused some time ago because of the appearance of a few cases of plague in the Southern part of this colony, it may be of interest to give the opinion of Mr B. Aitken, who was editor of a paper at Lucknow, and arrived here this week, upon this disease. Chatting with a "Star" representative shortly after his arrival, Mr Aitken said.— "I have been in plague districts- We had nine people in our own office struck down by plague in one day, and for six weeks the year before last the deaths totalled over 100 every day iv Lucknow." "That is surely enough to create a scare.'' "Well, the position is simple enough. Europeans have ceased to fear the plague, as it does not attack them if they are clean, and live in airy rooms. The natives, on the other hand, would rather have the plague than the sanitary restrictions." "Then the plague is not so much to be feared here?" '•Well, you see, it broke out in several places on the Continent, as at Marseilles, but there was no. serious epidemic arupngst Europeans. Of course if you live here closely packed in dingy rooms, with little air aud improper sanitary methods, then the plague might, be a serious matter." In further conversation,- Mr Aitken referred to the National Congress ot India, in which the leading man is Sorendro Neth Bannerjee. "He is called 'Surrender Not Bannerjee,'" remarked Mr Aitken, "and is a man of undoubted influence in India. Formerly he was in the Civil Sendee, but since his re* tireraenb from it has been prominent in the National Congress. The trouble is that while the Congress attacks the Government and demands reforms, still no programme is laid down or scheme of reform submitted. It is confined mainly to the educated professional classes, but the native traders, -tjhe' people who make India, will have nothing to do with the movement.'*