INDIA FOR THE INDIANS

Evening Star, Issue 18160, 28 December 1922, Page 1

INDIA FOR THE INDIANS

CONGRESS AT CALCUTTA. l PRESIDENT’S UNOOMPROMISINO ATTITUDE. free® Association—Bj Telegraph—Copyright. DELHI, December 26. Four thousand delegates attended the opening session of the National Congress at Calcutta. In his presidential address, Mr R. C. Das insisted that the Government must bs by the masses, not by the middle classes. He favored securing elections to the councils in order to carry out a policy of non-co-operation, and vigorously denounced * plea for law. and order, which he described as the last resource of bureaucracies. Hffl maintained that no regulation could b# law unless it was based on the people’s consent, without which obedience was not obligatory. He urged that India’s ideal should lie the nationalism of one great nationality, and that an Indian nation was in sight, the development of the law of which waa along the. path of swaraj (selfgovernment). Non-violent non-co-opera-tion was the only means of attaining swaraj. Ho emphasised the importance of India's participation in the great Asiatic Federation in replacing the Pan-Mamie movement, and in constituting a union oi Asia’s oppressed nationalities. He disapproved of the ■ granting of provincial autonomy with responsibility to a central Govei-nment, favoring instead the expression of a collective will through _ the medium of the creation of practically autonomous small centres. Ho urged the appointment of a committee to draw up such a swaraj scheme. He considered the present system of reformed councils absolutely unsuited- <o the nature and genius of a nation which refused to recognise it as the real foundation of swaraj. The president said ho expected tliat Non-Co-opera-tors would secure a majority at the council’s elections, and they could then demand their own constitution, failing which they should oppose all the work. Bureaucracy would then have f-o yield or withdraw reform Acts. In either event it would bo a triumph for the_ nation. H® urged the congress to organise Labor and the peasantry; otherwise they plight form their own organisations disassociated from the swaraj’s objective. The congress, by 70 votes to 4, adopted a. resolution that tho contesting of _ seats for the councils was opposed to their religion. The decision is expected consider ably to influence tho controversy.—Reuter. ARMY RECRUITS. DELHI, December 26. A, .resolution will be submitted at th» forthcoming session of the Legislative A®Bfembly recommending a stoppage of th® recruitment of British soldiers for thi array in India by one-third, and also urging the Indianisationi of the army in the course of fifteen years by the gradual elimination of tho British forces and their replacement by Indians. —A, and N.Z. Cable. MOPLAH PRISONERS, THE ASPHYXIATION INCIDENT. DELHI, December 26. The trial of 'Sergeant Andrews and a number of policemen, who were in charge of a van in which a number of Moplah prisoners were asphyxiated ended 1 in the acquittal of all tho accused'.-—A and N.Z. Cable. . • [On November 22 of last year a party of 100 convicted Moplah® entrained at Timr. Fifty-six were found dead at- Padonur. They had been asphyxiated. Tho survivors received immediate medical attention, but eight died. At the subsequent inquiry the senior medical officer at Malabar stated that tho surviving prisoners received every attention while proceeding to Coimbatore. He also expressed the oimon that the dead mm were asphyxiated', there _ being too many in tho van both for the air and floor space. Even with the ventilating gauze removed, bo was not euro that the van was fit for couveying human beings. The district medical officer expressed the opinion that lie would not recommend- the carrying of 100 prisoners in such a ran.]