THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY,

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 108, 10 May 1927, Page 6

THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY,

(By CHARLES CONWAY.)

MAY X.—THE START OF; THE INDIAN MUTINY.

Seventy years ago, on May 10, 1857, the memorable native rising known as the Indian Mutiny broke out at Meerut and spread rapidly throughout the Presidency of Bengal. The trouble had been brewing for many months, and the terrible calamity might have been avoided if the British Government had heeded the warnings it received of the impending revolt. The sepoys, or native soldiers, who outnumbered the white troopa stationed in India by six to one, had many real and fancied grievances against their British rulers, who were widely credited with the intention of uprooting the native religions, and this erroneous belief was apparently justified when the soldiers were supplied with a new type of cartridge which had to be bitten before it could be used. The first batch of these new cartridges given to the troops had been smeared with the fat of pigs and cows, and the mere act of biting them would have meant sacrilege and pollution to the sepoys. Immediately the Government realised the enormity of its blunder the offensive cartridges were discarded, but the harm had been done, and the new issue of innocuous cartridges was viewed with suspicion, a fact which was eagerly seized by the agitators to foment trouble. In numerous instances the sepoys refused to even touch the cartridges, and there were a number of small mutinies, but these were speedily quelled, and there was no outbreak of a serious nature until the month of May, 1857, when there was a revolt at Meerut, an important military station 25 miles from Delhi, which led to 85 mutinous sepoys being sentenced to imprisonment. On May 9 the prisoners were publicly degraded and placed in irons in the presence of the whole garrison on the parade ground at Meerut an indignity which was keenly resented by the native soldiers, who were only restrained from breaking out into open mutiny by the fact that they were covered by the loaded guns of the white troops, lno shackled prisoners were marched off to jail and the sepoys returned to their quarters, where they• spent the night in planning a general rising for the following day, which was the Sabbath. It was decided that the revolt should commence while the white soldiers and population were attending evening service in the church, which was to be surrounded and the worshippers massacred as they left the sacred edifice, but this scheme was frustrated by the impatience of the sepoys, who commenced hostilities at five in the afternoon, when the agreed signal, the firing of a rocket, was given prematurely. The sepoys at once seized their arms and made for the gaol where they released their 85 comrades and 1400 other prisoners, who eagerly joined in the work of murder and destruction which broke out all over Meerut. For over two hours hell was let loose in the town, and the mutineers, after murderin" numerous officers, torturing to death the white women and children who fell into their hands and looting and burning the homes of the European residents, marched off to Delhi, where they joined forces with the native garrison and speedily became masters of the great city. The success of the rebels at Meerut was mainly due to the weakness and indecision of the commanding officer, General Hewitt, who decided unwisely to stand on the defensive and keep the white troops inactive within their lines. If he had taken prompt action at the commencement of the outbreak, or had even pursued and attacked the mutineers during their march to Delhi it is quite possible ho might have nipped the mutiny in the bud and saved the country from many months of terror and bloodshed.