The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1922. INDIAN UNREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 212, 7 September 1922, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1922. INDIAN UNREST.

. » —.—■ For the eauae that Jacks urtattnoc, For the torong that teeds resistanta, For the future in the distance, Aid the food that toe aw do.

The Viceroy of India is on safe ground when he commends Mr. Sastri for his efforts to secure more generous consideration for the claims of Indians throughout the Empire. For Mr. Sastri has made it perfectly clear to his hearers in NewZealand and Australia, as elsewhere, that ho recognises the economic and social difficulties involved in this portentous problem of Oriental immigration, and that at the same time he discountenances any effort on the part of Indian Xationalists at home or abroad to secure - their objects by violent or unconstitutional means. Rut it seems to us that the Viceroy's comment on the exceedingly delicate and difficult questions that Mr. Sastri has been endeavouring to handle leave a great deal to be desired in the way of clearness and decisiveness. The general tendency of Lord Reading's remarks is to suggest that the Indian Government is in full accord with the spirit of tbe Nationalist movement, and that it will do what it can to promote "the realisation of India's reasonable expectations": in fact, the Viceroy states ' in so many words that his Government j "has been and will he unremitting in ; urging the rights of Indians throughout . the Empire." No doubt Lord Reading's intentions nre admirable, but our own , conviction is that those most seriously i concerned for the safety of the Empire j would feel easier in their minds about j India if the Viceroy had explained a little moro clearly what he means by "the rights of Indians'' and "India's • reasonable expectations" as bearing on the present condition of India itself. For as Lord Reading's speech to the • National Assembly at Delhi plainly I shows, the present condition of India I renders even the most optimistic memI bers of the Government gravely appre- ! hctisivc about the future. And though it may be unfair even to attempt to j summarise the rights and wrongs of this | complex situation in a sentence, we incline to the belief that a great deal or | the disorder and insecurity which noncause such well-founded anxiety to the i Indian Government is due to the con-' ciliatory and indecisive policy whiou , Lord Reading himself has so long maintained in his dealings with the Nationalists. In an article in a recent "Quarterly Review," Sir Valentine Chirol, who is universally accepted as an expert on Indian affairs, maintains j that "the attitude of kindly and magnanimous leniency which the Viceroy adopted from tho opening of his term lof office towards the leading Nationalist I agitators has been chiefly responsible for j nearly all the trouble that has arisen since. He tried to conciliate Gandhi by ! inviting him to a conference whicn lasted a whole week, and which had no effect except to encourage "the apostle of non-co-operation" to proclaim a boycott of the Prince of Wales' visit. Worse than this, Lord Reading temporised with j | the All brothers while they were openly preaching sedition; and though he was j finally compelled to admit that he was | mistaken by taking vigorous measures ' against them, he took this course onlyj after tin' Khilafat agitation had incited j Hindus and Moslems to desperate rebel-; lion, and brought British authority in India to the verge of ruin. It should be clearly realised that an appreciation of these facts does not necessarily imply any opposition to the just antl legitimate desire of the Indian ' | peoples, whether Hindu or Moslem, for j a larger share in the government of their j : own country or the control of their own j destinies. Our point simply is that, so , long as Britain claims to exercise control over India the Imperial Government and its delegates, who nominally rule India ' I and manage its affairs, must be prepared at all times to assert and maintain their ! I authority. More especially in Oriental I countries, the Government which once : sacrifices its dignity and prestige in the ' eyes of its subjects is doomed to destruc- ' tion, and unfortunately nearly all Orientals are inclined to interpret generosity on the part of Iheir rulers as a sign of weakness and cowardice, i No doubt Lord Reading and his colleagues have been actuated by the ' ■ highest motives in dealing so tenderly ' I with the Ali brothers and Gandhi. Rut it is hardly open to question that this 1 mistaken clemency has lowered the status of the British Raj in the eyes or the Indians and has seriously undermined its power. Unfortunately it is much easier to adopt such a policy than ' to reverse it, and Sir Valentine Chirol i shows clearly that the changed attitude of Lord Reading and the Imperial i Government toward the Nationalist ! agitators, as evidenced by the punish- !. ment of Gandhi and the Ali 'brothers, has | produced throughout India the general j idea that the British authorities are no longer in favour of carrying out the con- i cessions offered by the Montagti-Chelms- ' ford reforms. We do not think that this opinion is justified. But at the same j, time it is still doubtful whether the new 11 system, which presupposes the existence of national sentiment and public opinion ' in communities which possess no sort of . racial or religious or social unity, can 2 attain any great measure of success. i{