COMMUNISTS IN INDIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 7

COMMUNISTS IN INDIA

POLICE RAID HOUSES AND OFFICES

ARRESTS IN BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA REPORTED

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON; Jan. 14. The police raided the offices and houses of Communist organisations and their leaders in Bombay and Delhi following publication of an article in the “People’s Age” which allegedly disclosed certain military instructions, reports Reuter’s correspondent in Bombay. The New Delhi radio reported that the Bombay police had arrested the editor and assistant editor of the “People’s Age.” Communist headquarters declared that the military document published contained details of measures to check an Indian rising should the British Cabinet mission have failed.

In Calcutta special police raided the Communist provincial headquarters and the Peasant Party offices, arresting 31 Left Wing politicians. The police also raided Communist premises at Karachi and Cuttack, and premises at Benares and Lahore. “Yesterday’s police raids on offices of the Communist Party and the allied organisations throughout India did not surprise those who follow Indian political trends,’’ says the Delhi correspondent of “The Times.’’ “Communist and Left Wing agitators have been trailing their coats for months; past, and since the Interim Government’s advent to office in September their efforts have been concentrated on persuading illiterate workers that class war is more necessary, to which they say, the Congress Party is allied. “The consequence has been,” the correspondent adds, “that there has been a succession of strikes and labour disputes culminating in last week’s serious trouble among the Cawnpore millworkers. Clearly some action was due if the rot was to be stopped.”