A FLAMING ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 34, 9 August 1934, Page 6

A FLAMING ARMY

REVELATIONS IN INDIA

I have just been investigating sensational disclosures of tho terrorist cult ■which read like detective fiction', says the "Daily Telegraph's" Calcutta correspondent. lam pledged not to reveal the names of officials and localities mentioned, but I can. give the assm\ aiico that the information comes front a thoroughly trustworthy source. _ A youth <joncenied in the incidents was later sent to a mental asylum, ( and the story may., be read in this light. Going, to a collector's bungaloiy at an up-country station, •■: a. well-educated youth asked for a;job to clean shoes, and when ho received a refusal walked away. Later the collector's suspicions being aroused, he followed th" youth in a ear, and, after a conversation, handed him over to the police. A search of his pockets revealed a packet of cigarettes which opened like a book. Inside was a plan of the collector's bungalow, together with the creed of the terrorists—the so-called "Flaming Army." Another slip bore an accurate list of the civic officials with details of their careers. Tho collector, one of tho most loyal of Indian officials, asked tho youth why ho courted troublo by making the strange request about cleaning shoos. Tho youth replied that, this was the only method of approach, and that he wished to test the official's loyalty or the possibility of gaining his sympathy by talking tetrorism. . RUSSIAN MACHINE-GUNS. Among information which the youth if; said to have supplied afterwards is tho following:— The "Flaming Army" had a much wider organisation than the police knew. Its members wero being trained in militant methods. They had a. number of revolvers fitted with silencers manufactured in Europe. The youth drew a plan of a silencer, and said they wore essential for quiet revolver 'prnc.tico—generally on river banks. Tho revolvers were smuggled into1 India in tins and barrels of oil. A few Bussian machine-guns had also boon, received, but- tho terrorists were unable to manage the work of assembling them. Midnaporo had now become so "hot" that tho "Flaming Army's" headquarters, worn being1 moved to a quiet spot in tho Himalayas. These -statements worn duly recorded, and later, as I have stated, the youth was reported to bo in a mental asylum. l?olico activity.has since been noticed in tho bazaars. A. search is probably being mado for' confederates,' though apparently without success.

Precautions have moanwhilu boon taken for the protection of the collector 'a house. Tho doors have been strengthened, trees from which windows could bo roachod have boon felled, and an iirmed guard has beon supplied.