THE INDIAN PROBLEM

Evening Star, Issue 20985, 26 December 1931, Page 9

THE INDIAN PROBLEM

DISQUIETING INCIDENTS . ACTIVITIES OF CONGRESS Press Association —By Telegraph —Copyright. CALCUTTA, December 24. The warlike mood of the Congress is growing in all quarters, apparently with the object of producing a situation throughout the country which will leave Mr Gandhi no option hut to declare a revival of civil disobedience. Already a number of Congressmen have been imprisoned as a result of the no-rent campaign in the United Provinces, and the leaders declare that they are ready to go to prison in a renewed struggle against the Government. Bengal terrorists have singled out members of the European Association as targets for their revolutionary activities. Extracts from a pamphlet which was recently broadcast by the Congress Conference at Berhampore include an exhortation to kill members of the European Association and strike terror into the hearts of the ruling classes. The chairman of the association (Mr Villiers), who was wounded by an anarchist, accepts the challenge, and appeals to Europeans to combine and save India and the Empire. SEDITIOUS PROPAGANDA SPECIAL ORDINANCES PROMULGATED CALCUTTA, December 25. (Received December 26, at 11 a.m.) A terrorist plot against the life of Sir Geoffrey Montmorency (Governor of the Punjab) was unearthed by tbe police, who raided a large number of houses in Multan, Lahore, and other places. Many arrests were made. It is recalled that Sir Geoffrey Montmorency was wounded in the terrorist outrage at the University Hall at Lahore in Christmas week last year. Grave unrest is being caused among the warlike tribesmen in tbe North-west Frontier by Congress seditious propaganda, and has resulted in the promulgation by the Government of India of three ordinances conferring special powers upon the area for the administration and maintenance of law and order, under which officials are given power to arrest, detain, and control suspected persons, also providing for the control and supply of commodities in general use and the control of the public utility services. Special criminal courts will be instituted and heavy penalties will be imposed on persons instigating the non-payment of land and other revenues. The Frontier Commissioner is declaring certain associations, including Congress, unlawful, and condemns the activities of Abdul Gaffar Khan, known as tbe “ Frontier Gandhi,” and his Red Shirts, which is a Communist organisation, the members of which are holding camps and manoeuvres in the Peshawar district, causing disaffection among the border tribesmen.