TROUBLE IN INDIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25082, 14 January 1947, Page 4

TROUBLE IN INDIA

Prediction of Civil War

MANY BRITISH RESIDENTS LEAVING COUNTRY “The Press” Special Service

AUCKLAND, January 13. The outcome of the present dissension in India would be civil war, said Mr E. M. Liddell, an engineer, who is visiting New Zealand after three years in India, where he was engaged in ordnance work for the British Government toward the end of the war. His headquarters were at Ambernath, between Poona and Bombay, and not far from Kalyan transit camp, through which passed thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops. Mr Liddell, his wife and daughter, voluntarily did welfare work at the Sassoon Club at Kalyan and recalled many happy associations with soldiers from the Dominions.

There was substantial evidence that hundreds of British residents were leaving India to escape from the turmoil and its probable outcomecivil war—Mr Liddell said. Large businesses were being sold to big Indian combines and runs on the banks were being made by depositors who were eager to get their money out of the country quickly.

Demands by Nationalists Meanwhile the demand by the Indian nationalists that the British leave the country immediately was becoming more insistent and was to be heard in every city, town, and village, Mr Liddell said. The Indians during the war had learned a great deal through their contact with British troops. These men had treated the native labourers well.

In spite of the difficulties under which they laboured, the Indians possessed the strangest trades union in the world, said Mr Liddell. Labour was shared qmong them under an unwritten lgw which required every person to nave a particular job and which was adhered to strictly. However, many Indians realised the value of British guidance and advice, particularly in industrial matters. Their own methods were very primitive and they would always depend upon supplies of technical equipment from outside sources.

A consolation to British residents in India which was not shared by many other countries of the Empire was that they could buy unlimited supplies of cigarettes, said Mr Liddell. Any number of British brands were available.