Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1930. A CANDID AND LUCID SURVEY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 112, 14 May 1930, Page 10

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1930. A CANDID AND LUCID SURVEY

The Secretary for India, whose replies to questions in the House of 'Commons have mostly been an irritating mixture of stale news and empty platitudes, may; be heartily 1 congratulated on the new departure revealed yesterday. He has circulated to members of Parliament and ! issued to the Press "an appreciation of the general situation in India" which he has received from the/Indian Government; and he has done so promptly, for the: message which was dispatched from Delhi on Sunday was published in London, on Monday. ■ The opening reference in this valuable document to "our ap-preciation-of 24th April" seems to indicate both that these reports are periodical and that they are officially known as "appreciations." It may be hoped that the course taken on this occasion will establish a precedent, and that future "appreciations" from the Indian Government will be published with equal promptitude. It is of. course inevitable, especially in a time of peril, that the Viceroy must have much to say to the India Office which cannot be safely passed on to the public, but the difficulty is easily overcome, as it probably has been on this occasion, by the inclusion of such matter in a separate and confidential message. It is upon the British nation that the ultimate responsibility for the government of India rests, and the better it is kept informed, the less likely is it to fail in its duly. The document of which the British Official Wireless . supplied us with the full text yesterday is indeed something much better than a report. It is not a mere summary of facts for, the jury, but also a diagnosis of them from the standpoint of those to whom contact and 'responsibility give the best opportunity for knowing and judging correctly. Quite properly, therefore, is such a document officially termed not a report but pn appreciation, and we are glad to say that it is equally welcome in its facts and its conclusions. The quiet, candid, and judicial, tone in which both facts arid comments are stated strengthens its appeal to our confidence. - If the Government of India does not handle Mr. Gandhi as if it loved him, one may search the document in vain for the faintest trace of hostility, contempt, or 'disparagement. Like plague,>pestilence, or famine, the epidemic of violence whichjhis preacher of nonviolence has spread throughout India is treated impersonally .and disI passionately as a'problem for statesi manship and not for ' complaint^ or argument. The campaign against the salt laws is discussed without any reference to Mr. Gandhi at all, and its total or partial failure outside of the Bombay Presidency is not mentioned with any note of congratulation or satisfaction because, while the immediate, object in view was not achieved, the indirect effects are serious and widespread. The results on the Government revenues have been negligible. The real effect achieved has been to axouse a spirit of lawlessness and defiance of authority, and to give impetus to forces of disorder, which its organisers are unable to restrain. , - ...

In its wise determination not to make too much fuss about Mr. Gandhi, the Indian Government' may indeed be said not to debit him with the full responsibility which even the most scientific of historians or moralists must lay at his door. The disorder which it charitably describes the organisers of the movement as "unable to restrain" may "be' contrary to Mr. Gandhi's principles,-but it, is not the undesired and indirect effect of his recent teaching.' It is what he has been openly and directly advocating. Cabling from Bombay on the 22nd March —just a fortnight before the arrival of Mr. Gandhi and his pilgrims ; at the seaside Was to be the signal for the opening of the more active phase of his civil disobedience campaigiw-a special correspondent of the "Observer" reported that

the main feature of the situation is the increasing bitterness of Mr. Gandhi's speeches, of .which appar 7 6ntly the telegraphic reports have been held, up or censured. r He did not dispute the legitimacy of this procedure "if the latest reports are accurate," and whether his own message was censored or not, the following sample of these reports was allowed to come through:—

At Borßad Mr. Gandhi is reported to have said he prayed God day and night that this system of Government might bo destroyed once for all. _ He was convinced that, it was a sin to allow it loug'to exist. Sedition -had now become his religion. Ho appealed to the audience to make sedition their national duty. "I tell you as sure as I live at this moment," ■he went on, "that this Government's days are numbered. It is difficult for them to arrest me; it'is moro difficult not to do so. They may harass niej even persecute me, but let them not make a mistake. Until the last breath of life passes out of me I shall wish nothirg but the complete destruction, of this system of Government. I must makeit clear that what I desire is the end of this Government, and not those who govern. Even in the interests of these people this Government must .bo destroyed.

Mr. Gandhi's has not been a case of sowing the wind and reaping the

whirlwind. He has simply reaped as lie has sown. The Sedition which had "become his religion" has- become his followers' politics, and unless he is to be regarded as absolutely mad that is what he intended. In either case he was not fit to be at large, and' there was no excuse for leaving him at large unless he was' likely to do more harm in gaol. Having arrested Mr. Gandhi the Indian Government now-reports that, "partly in' consequence of the careful precautions taken by the local authorities," the proceeding'has excited less disorder than might have been expected and "probably less than would have taken place some weeks earlier," a remark which weakens, if it does not destroy, the suspicion that tlie 'arrest of Mr. Gandhi had been delayed by the interference of the Cabinet. Both the local and the central authorities of India must be congratulated on the success with which they have stood up to this first great test. Confirming the accuracy of our cabled reports, the official "appreciation" says that the arrest was followed by "sporadic riots," which were serious only in Calcutta, Delhi, and Sholapur, and that in each case order had been promptly restored. It is far less surprising to hear that there was a serious outbreak in the great and highly inflammable city of Calcutta, that it was "of short duration, and that the authorities had little difficulty in exercising effective control." The. confidence of the Empire in the ability of the Indian Government to see'" the country through its perils is greatly strengthened by this candid and lucid survey. . ' ■ ' . .. ■ ■ .