"HOODED SNAKE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 260, 3 November 1931, Page 8

"HOODED SNAKE."

TREACHEROUS RIVER HOOGLI.

HARBOURMASTER'S STORY.

GANDHI'S LONDON MISSION.

I put my hand on the Hoogli: like a hooded sna-se she rosej And I flung your stoutest steamers to roost with the startled crows. .

Thus did Kipling, make the winds speak of .the-'River Hoogli, one of the most treacherous in the world, and Cap? tain D. P. Malcolm, now harbourmaster at Calcutta, who was a pilot on /tlie river for 20 years, would not only en-' dorse what Kipling said, but'add"to it. Captain Malcolm arrived by the Mhu.nganui this morning on furlough.

"The channel, or the various channels-, shift daily," he said, "and where it was deep water at sundown will become shallow overnight. The bed of the river is largely quicksand, while the current at times races to meet the sea, and the tide runs in at " a steady 'nine knots. Where the two meet is the 'world's best' rip. There are whirlpools and back eddies and more whirlpools, and a boat, trying to edge past all that, finds that, where the day before, she had . plenty of deep water, now she is aground. Twenty Surveyors Busy. "In the summer months, when the ice melts in the Himalayas, the great floods boom down the rivers of India, carrying with them debris of all sorts from whole trees to human bodies. The flood waters meet the incoming tide, and there comes a time when the tide can no longer hold them. I have seen a wall of water 12ft high pile up in 20 seconds. "All this makes it very difficult to hold a ship in position. Even the bore anchors will not suffice on some occasions. That is one of the reasons why the King George dock was built. Some £3,500,000 have been spent on it, but they have had to suspend operations owing to the trade depression. "The treachery of the river calls for .the services of a staff of 20 surveyors, with a day and night scrvice of three dredges. Altogether it is a ticklish business." Indian Trouble Explained.

Through long association with the natives Captain Malcolm is able to unravel- ta some-extent- the tangled skein

of Indian politics; Gandhi, lie said, had become a familiar figure in London, with his inevitable dress of poverty, his hare legs and his rude sandals, hut while his visit to the centre of the British Empire would do no harm, it would never solve the problem of India.

; It had been amply provo?i by this' time that the man,who.spoke with the voice of the Tower caste millions iu India was sincere; but Captain Maicolm thought that soon ' Gandhi would tire of being deserted by his supporters, and when that happened the agitation would die .down. The majority neither cared about it nor understood it oven. now. . The trouble - fundamentally ; was not that certain of - the more educated Indians, wanted more share in the Government of their own country, - but rather the irreconcilable, differences between the Hindus and the Mohammedans. ' v. Britain Holds Balance. In the meantime, under all the unrest' and overt sedition, the prestige of Britain among- those manses', whom Gandhi did in truth represent, remained high and unbroken. The natives . would ask. for a British article in preference to any other. Even among the educated classes, cultured enough to consider that they ought to have some control of: their country, the good that Britain had done was realised. "Britain, as it were, holds the balance between the sharply divided sects." .. . . ' Captain Malcolm admitted that lie knew it to be unsafe for him in uniform to go from the docks to the city at night. There was always the risk of some malcontent taking a pot shot at a uniformed figure. The trouble in Manchuria was too far away for the rioting mobs in India to use it as a political capital, the harbourmaster said. If active unrest did spread to India, the Whole East would take fire. Certain seditious influence did seep down into India from beyond the Himalayas. "Perhaps it would not .be wise to say exactly what I think about that," commented Captain " Malcolm. -'