MORE REPORTS OF DISORDERS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23714, 12 August 1942, Page 3

MORE REPORTS OF DISORDERS

Bombay Said To Be Almost Normal

• . (Deceived August 11, p.m.) (N./.P.A.) LONDON, August ll). A message from Bombay says: “The city has almost completely resumed normal life. Few of the 70 mills have been shut down. It is clear that Congress is not receiving support from other parties. “It looks as though the Government’s promptitude has crushed civil disobedience. Last night’s curfew completely cleared the streets. Anyone abroad was immediately arrested. The mob element was egain busy in some areas this morning.” Many shops have closed in Calcutta, and work was interrupted at some jute mills. At Nagpur students have gone on strike and shops have been shut. Crowds at New Delhi were in an uglier mood than on the previous day. They forced the remaining shops—mostly Moslem shops—to close down. The police did not interfere beyond guarding banks and other buildings and pushing rioters off the tram lines, enabling empty trams to move on. Most of ihe local leaders have disappeared to avoid arrest, and the mobs are virtually Icaderless. A crowd which tried to reach the Viceroy was led by women. - The police used barbed wire to prevent mobs proceeding to the Imperial Secretariat in New Delhi. This measure was only partially successful, and the police eventually had to wield their lathis to induce the crowds to disperse. Other reports indicated that Bombay was still the storm centre. The city’s death-roll yesterday and to-day was estimated at 15. More than 60 were taken to hospital to-day, mostly with bullet wounds. After an ugly day the disturbances were more serious late in the evening. The police were again forced to open fire in several places. Troops were called out in Bombay, New Delhi, and Lucknow. Another reoort said that the interrup- ( A press report says that police in th

Another report said that the interruption of work in Bombay had spread to 18 mills and that the .situation grew worse this afternoon in northern Bombay, where'more trains were stoned, telegraph wires cut., street lamps smashed, and a post office attacked. Drivers abandoned a number of buses which were badly damaged. Twentyfive buses were abandoned in one street. • ! Picketing hast been declared illegal In Bombay and other cities, and there have been further regulations affecting the Indian press. -A curfew has been ordered in the north of Bombay. After ap ugly diy the dislu/b"ncos' In Bombay were more serious late in the evening. The police were again forced ,to,'open fire in several places. Troops; were called out in Bcmoay. J{«w Delhi, and Lucknow. ' Bor n J ,ay ra ’* was dislocated du.-m<rl attacks on the railway stations, In a large-number of rioters are 0e;/ e have been wounded. All •be mfj?, .v>ts are closed and buses and t^Pot operating on some routes. tiiotln Ctont'nUed aIS'V in and W/“? ittan cities, and the oolice were ''’Revolvers, smoke bombs, tear gas. ancf .this to disperse the crowds. An official communique issued in Bombay says that Sunday’s riots resulted in 13 being killed and 169 injured, including 91 police injured; Twenty-seven members of the public were injured in to-day’s disturbance, but the number of dead and police casualties, is not available. The communique adds that the police frustrated attempts to set fire to the srsworl's an rl the Central India r?i - way station. Three police stations were set qn fire, two of which were gutted. The communique says that police and troops fired on rioting mobs in the city about 10 times up to 4 p.m. Numerous instances of mob violence occurred.

A press report says that police in the Dadar area of Bombay this morning were forced to fire on a large, violent crowd, which refused to disperse. In this and later firing 11 persons were wounded. Demonstrators burnt a Government grain shop in the area, and the stoning of suburban trains is reported at Dadar. The New Delhi correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that shopf, mills, and schools in New Delhi have been closing all day, but vital services a -- c not interrupted. Food shops are open and the situation appears to be under control. A large force of Indi.-n mo British paraded through the old part of the city. The demonstrators, who were in an uglier mood than yesterday, forced the closure of the few shops remaining open in Delhi, but they did not clash with the police. Markets m Karachi have closed and students are not attending the colleges. In Poona the police, after fruitless baton charges, fired on a crowd, mostly students, who were trying to demonstrate near the Parasurambhau College. Poona’s schools and colleges are closed. The police in Lucknow fired on a crowd of university students who. after organising a strike, attempted to form a procession, in spite of the police ban on processions. The police first changed the crowd with lathis and the students began stoning them. The police fired a volley and arrested five men and. eight women students. Police and soldiers are now guarding the university. . . Sardar Baldev. Punjab Minister of Development, stated that the Sikhs would not tolerate any subversive movement calculated to weaken the war effort. HINDU LEADER’S STATEMENT NO ACTIVE SUPPORT TO CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE NEW DELHI. August 10. Dr. Savakar, president of the Hindu Mahasabha, the orthodox Hindu organisation, has called on all Hindus not to extend active support to the Congress Party’s mass civil disobedience resolution, and also not to take up a hostile attitude to the Congress Party’s action pending a decision by a meeting of the Mahasabha Working Committee on August 29. He warned the Government that the only effective way to appease Indian discontent was an unequivocal declaration by Parliament granting India the status of completely free and equal partnership in an IndoBritish Commonwealth. “This should be immediately implemented by investing India with actual political power,” he said. The Bombay correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that bands of Hindus this morning threw stones against Moslem shops in the trouble areas. However, the police, apart from this single demonstration, have reported no other communal activities. The correspondent says that the police expect the rioting to die down within a couple of days unless Hucius and Moslems clash, in which case bloodshed is likely to continue all the summer. PARLIAMENT UNLIKELY TO BE RECALLED (Received August 11 11 p.m.) LONDON, August 11. There is little likelihood of developments in India making it necessary to recall Parliament. The India Committee of the Labour Party is meeting to consider the situation arising from the arrests of the Congress Party leaders. TOJO STRIVING FOR DICTATORSHIP “ EMPEROR A VIRTUAL PRISONER ” NEW YORK. August 10. The Prime Minister of Japan (General Tojo) is striving to establish himself as a dictator, says Mr Roberl Bellaire. former manager of the United Press of America at Tokyo, who was recently released by the Japanese on exchange. He added that General Tojo had made the Emperor Hirohito a virtual prisoner in the Imperial Palace, and had even denied him access to the daily newspapers. General Tojo was endeavouring to build up his personal popularity as a means to becoming Japan’s first Shogun with power eclipsing the Emperor’s. General Tojo’s picture appears in the daily newspapers, showing him kissing babies, talking with young students, and even assisting elderly women across the street.

IMPRISONMENT OF GANDHI COMMENT IN BRITISH PRESS LONDON, August 10. The decision ol the Government of India to imprison Mr Gandhi is generally' approved throughout Britain, although there is equal regret that such a measure should be necessary. The point of view of the man in the street is thkt he was puzzled at the rejection of Sir Stafford Cripps's offers, but nevertheless he was inclined to be tolerant until the revelation that Mr Gandhi would not hesitate to negotiate with .the Japanese. This switched oublic opinion against Mr Gandhi and the Congress Partv. The “Economist." commentin'? before the arrests, said: “Mr Gandhi and Pandit Jawabarlal Nehru see in the present state of India and the world a chance to force the freedom of India at whatever cost. It is blackmail—from the highest motives, perhansbut blackmail none the less. It is plain now that Sir Stafford Cripps offered the only possible wav out of ‘he Indian impasse, and that the main Indian parties are neither willing nor able to take it." With Die main exception of the ‘Daily HorF.ld” th- Eng'ish newspanels '•■cnerpi)-- nn f i o r- ™■ r-m-U'!- i Imprisonment. The “Daily Herald.” 1 believing that imprisonment will make

a martyr of ,Mr Gandhi, considers that 'he should not bo locked up until later, when ,it might become unavoidable. The “Manchester Guardian” is of the opinion that neither nrevention nor repression is enough. “No sane person can tolerate the thought that there should be a long eeribd of struggle growing more and more embit'ered and more damaging to the common cause.” It states. “It is politically and morally monstrous for two sides to be • at each other’s throats when they have the same aims. “The Congress Party stated in the Bombay resolution that its policy, if Ind’a were freed, was to aid the Allies with armed as well as non-violent forces.’ ;hns deliberately setting aside Mr Gandhi's noMcv of non-vio'°nt coJ'hßer atyon. This changes the situation for the b'-ttm - nnd it is wrong •tJjfif-Changn sho’i lrl be ia- , TV---n-|k - jt |„ j,T r-rU- „ri n—“The Government of India, instead. Is simply refusin'* to ne"ot : -ue v’th - merely destructive Congress Party. _ If both sides have the same sincere intentions in regard to India’s freedom end her due ptacc as an active conih9tant against the aggressor, then it is ridiculous that we should hj" facing a confl’c* in vdveh the aims of India and the Allic" win more and more he forgotten. Su v elv there is enough v*'Sdom in India to halt this o"arrel before it confers a great benefit on the Axis and cam-’'- eonal damage to India and her Allies.” It seems unlikely that tb" British Government wpl make further proposals. believing that the Chops mission was not wasted end thot, the mas* - 0* resoonrib'e Indians will accept that ftffe r evelitupllv.