EAST AND WEST

Evening Post, Volume 55, Issue 55, 3 September 1923, Page 5

EAST AND WEST

ADDRESS BY DR. S. K. DATTA.

' An address on "The Results of Western Influence in India," was delivered at the Town Hall yesterday afternoon by Dr. S. K. Datta, ; M.B. . The Hon. C. 'J. Parr, Minister of .Education, occupied the chair. "' , - .

Dr. Datta has come to New Zealand at the joint invitation of the Student ..Christian Movement and the National Committee of the V.M.C.A., and is the authorof a book entitled ."The Desire of Indin." He is British 1 in aspirations and sympathy, and is an Imperialist in politics, and speaks as one who regards his own country as being a co-partner with ours; in the great commonwealth of nation's which constitutes the British Empire. In the course of his address, Dr. Datta remarked that Indian society was founded on the village system, and the sense of duty which such a' system' engendered. He explained that the caste system and the village system kept India from chaos. He. commented on the ijreat value of the education system which had been introduced in India, and alluded to the important work carried out by mans of medical and social service and by Christian missions. India was now progressing industrially,, and had attained a prominent place in thf> industrial nations of the world. The British, he said, had achieved wonderful results in India. The Empire in which we lived had at least attempted to build a bridge between the East and the/West. England was the freest country in the world, and the speaker made an eloquent appeal for sympathy and generosity'in endeavours to rebuild India and further improve the conditions of its immense population. . ' .

• Dr.. Datta will speak in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall to-night on "The New Conditions in India."