AFFAIRS IN INDIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 36, 11 August 1905, Page 5

AFFAIRS IN INDIA.

THE PARTITION TROUBLE. DISCUSSION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. [rF.ESS ASSOCIATION.! ' (Received August 11, 8.20 a.m.) LONDON,. 10th August. In the House of Commons the Right Hon. W. Brodrick, Secretary of State for the Colonies, showed that the proposed Bengal partition — which proposal has incensed the natives and led them to pass resolutions to boycott British goods — was the result of two years' study by the Indian Government, and was due to tho unwieldy size of the province for the purposes of administration. He also stated that the Government was awaiting further information. Mr. H. Roberts, Radical member for West Denbighshire, at the request of Sir H. Fowler, Radical member for East Wolverhampton, withdrew his motion to divide the House lest the action should cause a misunderstanding in India.

The proposal for the partition of Bengal, which has now become a burning question in the district affected, has been under consideration for some time by the; Indian Government, whose scheme to' givo effect to it has been approved by tho Viceroy. It has been found that the territories comprised in the Bengal Presi-* dency were too vast, and the population — aboht eighty millions — and its interests too great and too diversified, to be satisfactorily administered from Calcutta as a centre. It is, therefore, proposed to create a new province, to include portions of Assam and Behar and surrounding districts, having a population of close on twenty millions, and governed by a Lieutenant-Governor and Council sitting at a local centre. The scheme has been strenuously opposed by the business people of Calcutta, as it would not only remove from the seat of Government a- large official class, but also strike a severe blow at their trading interests, since the provincial towns, >vhich now draw their sup. plies from Calcutta, would probably moke the capital of .the new province their trading as well as their official centre. In the tour of the Viceroy last through the eastern districts many deputations waited i upon him to voice their objections to the scheme. Lord Curzon, in his replies, plainly hinted that they were all inspired from Calcutta, and prompted by interested' motives, and gave what appeared to bo convincing reasons for the necessity of the proposed change.