MOURNING IN BENGAL.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 145, 18 December 1908, Page 2

MOURNING IN BENGAL.

REMARKABLE PROCESSION OF 40,000 NATIVES. CALCUTTA, October 16. A remarkable anti-European demonstration was made throughout Bengal to-day, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the- partition of the province. * Tli© natives observed the anniversary as a day of mourning, discaarding j their clothes and footwear, and abI staining from food. All shops were closed in Calcutta. Special police proclamations were posted everywhere forbidding meetings and processions after 5 o'clock, and ordering the arrest?' of any native found carrying weapons. In consequence of the alarming rumors that theßengalscontemplatgd an attack on Europeans, two 'com-, parties of Gordon Highlanders were turned out for patrol duiy, arid the j remainder of the regiment was kept under arms at the fort. Two hundred police with fixed bayonets marched to the scene of the principal assemblage in Calcutta, while five hundred other police, in- ! eluding plain-clothes men armed with ! revolvers, were posted in the native .city, in., order to be ready to quell any a-ioting. .. ' ' , * 'Forty thousand Bengalis paraded the streets, the. procession being a mile and a half long, and stopping all traffic. Surendranath Banerjee, the "uncrowned king" of Bengal, was escorted by a bodyguard. :He walked ■ beneath the standard of Bengal. ! The police/ prevented any speeches being made by the agitators, and attempts to create disturbances were promptly suppressed. A European corporation official was attacked outside the university, and his carriage was stoned. One of the footmen was severely injured, and only escaped death in consequence of the bravery o£ tile coachman. . ' - /. . . ,■