NEED IN INDIA

Evening Post, Issue 113, 10 November 1930, Page 3

NEED IN INDIA

FIRM GOVERNMENT

BUSLNEESS VIEWPOINT;

There has recently been a display ot renewed activity on the part of th« Indian Congress extremists in their, ef» ■ forts to paralyse the government of - the country, writes a prominent.British business man in India to the ''Daily. Mail." ■". Bombay, which has long been th« centre of intense activity, is now in a parlous condition, and. this is wholly; clue to the weakness of the Government. It ik apparently utterly unable, or un- ' willing, to put forth any effort to copß with the situation., , \.; ■ The result is that the Congress has almost taken charge of Bombay—ill the sense that although.it is an illegal body it is able to impose its will on. the people. ."-,■'.',. The latest instance of' this is th« "black-listing" of European -managed 'cotton mills. Unless these mills are 75 per cent. Indian owned, unless they,' bank and insure with Indian concerns, and unless they give a undertaking not to take an active part in opposing tha Congress, they will be completely boycotted. ... There is where your Indian shows himself in his true colours. If and when he gets the power he will un« doubtedly seek to expropriate everything British. I hope the British mer» cantile public are alive to this prob.« ability. . . . , What we in this country demand before everything else, in. any scheme of Dominion status, are adequate and. satisfactory safeguards for the inter-•-ests we have built up, which we claim to be allowed to carry on. without hind* ranee. ' ;.; We insist that we shall not lie th» : subjects of discriminatory legislation, and that we shall enjoy equal rights with Indians as subjects of the Crown. These are points. that cannot too fore* ibly be brought before-the notice of .thai home public and especially. before Parliament. '~■■■ - We are now. suffering as the result of the unspeakably rotten government ye have in India. One is almost tempted to speak of it as not government at all, but as a series of concessions to tht Congress mob. : . What prestige we had is rapidly ais- ' appearing, and those among the weaker'-*' and illiterate classes who have always looked upon us as their protectors ara beginning to lose their faith in us. • From one end of the country to ths other the Congress appears to do. as it pleases, and never a word from thoss . in authority. . Lord Irwiu, the Viceroy, carries con-^ ciliation too far, and in Eastern nations that is often interpreted as. a sign of weakness. We need supremely a man of firmness, one who will stand no nonsense, and having given a decision will see it is carried-out. Had we liad such a man'nine months ago there would have been none of the -i deplorable happenings that haye been! so characteristic of the Congress propaganda. These are the views of every European in Calcutta. As one put it at a recent meeting, "We are sick to death' of weak government.". The forthcoming Bound-Table- Con« ference in England will, in jny opinion, be abortive. There are too.many conflicting elements to lope for anything better. In that event, what will Par*, liament give us? ■ '