GRAVE RIOTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 7

GRAVE RIOTING.

DISTURBED INDIA.

20 Killed in Clas&ies Following Execution of Murderers.

FIRES AND LOOTING.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 11.30 a.m.) DELHI, March 20. There was grave communal rioting in Cawnpore yesterday and to-day following the Lahore executions. Twenty persons were killed and 120 injured. The rioters set fire to and looted shops at Cawnpore. British troops were called out at midnight and followed some hours later by auxiliary forces. Temples and mosques have been looted and 14 incendiary fires occupied the brigade's attention. Attacks were made upon the currency office, the courts and the telegraph station. The trouble started when Moslems refused to participate in the mourning for the executed men. Gangs of ruffians of both communities, taking advantage of the situation, created a reign of terror, causing fires and indulging in looting. Disturbances also occurred in Peshawar, where the demonstrators wrecked a liquor shop.

BRITISH BOYCOTT.

EFFECT ON COTTON TRADE,

(British Oiticial Wireless.) (Received 12.U0 p.m.) RUGBY, March 25. The Indian boycott and its effect on the Lancashire cotton industry was discussed in the House of Commons when Mr. D. H. Hacking (Con., Lanes.) maintained that the Viceroy-Gandhi agreement had not eased the situation. He had been informed that boycotting and picketing were supported by those closely connected with the Indian textile industry. It was designed not to improve the material Conditions of India as a whole but actually to place fortunes in the pockets of a comparatively small number of Indian millowners at the expense of many millions of Indians. Commander Kenworthy (Lab., Hull) emphasised this point and strongly criticised the conditions in Indian-owned mills. Sir Herbert Samuel (Lib., Lanes.) said that on both sides coercion ought to be abandoned. There was a possibility of military pressure on this side and of economic pressure on the other side. Replying the Secretary for India, Captain Wedgwood Benn, said the settlement reached between the Viceroy and Gandhi would lie recommended to the National Congress at Karachi in the next few days. As far as lie was aware the clause in the agreement regarding picketing was being implemented. The settlement clearly laid down that pressure and coercion should cease, and that the- boycott of-.British goods, as a polities) 1 weapon, was to be discontinued.

SYMPTOMS OF TROUBLE. ,|

FURIOUS ATTACKS ON GANDHI

DELHI. March 25. The lir*t symptoms of possible trouble when the Indian National Congress opens its sessions at Karachi were apparent at a meeting of the Youusf Men's Association called as an act of homage to the three men executed for murder some days ago at Lahore.

Furious attacks on Gandhi were made by the Moslem president of the association and by Moslem and Sikh extremists who found a sympathetic hearing.

Disorderly scenes occurred at Karachi where an English elianlain was stoned.