The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30, 1908. The Congress in India.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 765, 30 December 1908, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30, 1908. The Congress in India.

Not the least important of the news published in to-day's budget of cablegrams is the report of the opening of the National Congress in India. The Congress, which is the most impressive gathering in that great land of mixed peoples and still more mixed religions, occurs at a critical time in the history of the reformation of modem India. The National Congress now sitting at Madras may serve to turn the seditious native from his evil and death-dealing ways, and, with the new and wider privileges tending towards self-government granted by the British Government, may serve to weld the strange human mixture of India together. In electing Dr. Ghose to the position of President of the Congress, delegates have 'done honour to an Indian wbo is almost as well known in England as in India. He has been an ardent upholder of the rights of India, and, at the same time, having been educated in England, and having hau some experience of public life there, he has developed a real regard for the Motherland ." His declaration that mmMm-mrmn-m-mAm m-m-mfvY te Via-

count Mof ley for bis efforts, which I had given the country something like a constitutional Government," wils carry weight over the whole of India. Dr. Ghose also coined a phrase that will stick in the minds of the people when he ridiculed the idea 01 "shaking the British sovereignty by the explosion of a few flasks of picric acid and a few pounds of powder.'' Major Andrew, a New Zealander, who has now a commission in the 116 th Mahrattas, one of India's regiments, is revisiting his native place in the South Island on furlough. Interviewed regarding affairs in India, the Major said a short timo ago *.— ■ "It is most difficult for the Indian Government to know what the people under tis control really want,' he said. "The extremists, as represented by the man who was sentenced to six years' transportation the othor day, want to turn the British ont of India altogether, but they are very few in number. The mass of the educated natives are by no means similarity certain what they do want. They are very distinctly dissatisfied, but they have no definite programme. The demands of the moderates, as fax as one can gather, do not involve any big constitutional changes at all. They want wider powers in the matter of local govc/i---ment, a larger share in the Civil appointments of the State, and the placing of the province of Bengal qn;e more under ono administration. These are questions of maohinery rather than of principle. The parti- j tion of Bengali was not as sore a | point as the agitators tried to make out* the grievance was magnified !*>** the purpose of producing discontent just as was the trouble over the cartridges in 1857." This evidence from a man who hai been on the spot and who has not j the prejudices of the Britisher, but the qualities of "an observant colonial, is reassuring. The wbole trend ] of the impressions of Major Andrew was hopeful and optimistic regarding the future of British rule in India. It is to be hoped that, under tho guidance of Dr. Ghose, the National Congress will give India a strong lead towards a /greater faith and trust in the beneficence of Britisli rule — a rule that, unlike the dealings of other nations, has always been sympathetic towards and considerate of tho national feelings of native races.