INDIAN SEDITION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 492, 27 April 1909, Page 7

INDIAN SEDITION.

8 —— ; A SET-BACK. EFFECT OF ROOSEVELT'S SPEECH. HEADQUARTERS CLOSED. (BY TELEGRAM!—PRESS ASSOCIATION —COrYRIGHT.) London, April 25. The New York correspondent of "Tho Times" .reports that ex-President Roosevelt's remarkable tribute to British rule in India, in the course of a speech at a recent meeting, proved a'death blow to . tho. Indian Nationalist propaganda in tho United States, where the headquarters are now closed. ' i ARRESTS IN. GWALIOR. (Rec. April 27, 0.55' a.m.) 1 London, April 26. The State police in .the Native State of' Gwalior' 'have arrested forty persons for fomenting disloyalty. ; GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT OF WHITE RULE.. - In the course of his speech referred to Mr. Roosevelt said:—"ln India we encounter tho most colossal example history - affords of the successful administration by men 1 , of European blood of: a thickly-populated region in another continent. It is tho greatest feat of the kind that has'been performed since tho break-up of the Roman Empire. Indeed, it is a greater feat than was performed under tho. Roman Empire. . Unquestionably mistakes havo been niadej.it would, indicate qualities literally superhuman if so gigantic a task had been accomplished' without mistakes. It is easy enough to point out shortcomings; but the fact remains that the successful' administration of tho Indian Empire "by the English lias been one of tho most . notable and most, admirablo achievements of the wliito race (luring the past two centuries. On the whole, it has been for •the immeasurable benefit of tho natives of India, themselves. Suffering has been caused in particular cases and at particular tinics to these natives; much more often, I believe, by well-intentioned ignorance or bad judgment than by any moral obliquity. But on the whole i there 'has been far more resolute effort to do justice, far more resolute effort to secure fair ' treatment for the humble and oppressed durs ing< tho days of English rule in India than dur- ! ing any other period recorded in' Indian history. India Revenues for'lndia. "England does not draw a penny from India •for English purposes; she 'spends for India the ravenues raised in India; and they arc spent I' for the benefit of tlio Indians themselves. ; Undoubtedly India is a less ' pleasant place than formerly for tho heads of tyrannical States. : There is now .little or no -. room for tho succcssfal freebooter chieftains, . for the despots who lived in gorgeous splendour while under their cruel rule tho'immense .mass of their countrymen festered in sodden misery.r But the mass of the people have been and'are t. far bettor oil than over before, and. far better v off than they would.now bo if the English con-. . trol were overthrown or withdrawn.. Indeed, if t tlio English control were now withdrawn from r India. the whole peninsula would, become ~a a chaos of bloodshed and violence;.all tho weaker t peoples and tho roost industrious - and lav* ; abiding would; bo plundered and forced, to - submit to indescribable wrong and oppression; s <and the only, beneficiaries among tho natives » | would be the . lawless, the, violent, and' the s I bloodthirsty. , r : . ~: ; 1 : ;"The Great Salient Fact." i "I liavo no question that there, are reforms to be advanccd-that is merely anothor way of. laying that tho Government have, been human. !l have al6o no question that there is being i made, and will bo made, a successful effort to l accomplish t]/'se reforms. ■ But the, great. : salient fact is'that the. presence. oi' the. English in India, like the presence of the English ; in Egypt and. the. Sudan, of the French in Algiers, of . the Russians in Turkestan, of .tho Germans in South-AYcst. and. East Africa—and » of all these, peoples and of other white nsoplw; in many other places—has been. for . the ad--6 ; vantage of mankind.. " Every well-wisher ofs i mankind, every truo friend of humanity, should. . realise that the part wliich'England has played 'in India has-been,to the immeasurable advana - : tage of India, and for her honour, her profit, s and her civilisation we shoull feel a profound > satisfaction in the stability and tho perinanlenc'o of English rulo.: I havo seen many American, missionaries'who have coma from India, :#nd I. cannot overstate' the terms of-admira-tion in which they 1 speak of English ruio in India 'and of the incalculable benefits which it has conferred and is conferring upon tho ; natives." . , ' • 1