REDS IN INDIA BORDERING ON REVOLT: RAILWAY SABOTAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22883, 1 March 1949, Page 5

REDS IN INDIA BORDERING ON REVOLT: RAILWAY SABOTAGE

PREMIER’S REVELATIONS :

(N.Z.P. A.—Reuter —Copyright.) (10 a.m.) NEW DELHI, Feb. 28. The Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru, told Parliament that a large number of prominent Indian Communists, had gone underground and that the Government had a mass of evidence to indicate that organised attempts were being made to conduct campaigns of sabotage, particularly on the railways.

Mr. Neliru said that 870 arrests had been made in the last 10 days in connection with the railway strike threatened by the Communist-led unions.

He added that the Government would consider banning the Communist Party in India, but it preferred to deal with individual Communists.

The Communist Party has adopted an attitude not only of open hostility to the Government but one which can be described as bordering on open revolt,” he said. . , , “This policy has been given effect intensely in certain limited areas of India, resulting in violence, including murder, arson, looting and sabotage. Weapons Provided for Students

Speaking of the Communist revolts in the countries bordering India, Mr. Nehru said it was, presumably, to further the same policy that attempts had been made in India to incite the people to active revolt. , ... . “The nature of the activities and the objectives of certain groups in India can be judged by the events which took place in Dumdum and other places in Calcutta two days ago. he “We have evidence that the agencies which provided the weapons to students are exploiting them for a similar purpose during the railway “There have been three cases of attempts to derail trains during the last two days. The Communist Party _is deliberately seeking to create famine conditions by paralysing the railway system so that foodstuffs should not be transported, the object being to create a general background of chaos, ths breakdown of the administration and mass uprisings.’’ Violent Seizure Advocated

Mr. Nehru added that speakers at meetings held tn Calcutta unde.r the auspices of the Communist-dominated Bengal Province Trade Union Congress, had urged that power be seized by violence and that the Communistdominated Bengal Students’ Federa tion announced that ..saboteur gangs were ready for action. This student group was responsible for the attempt to blow up the Talla waterworks near Calcutta a few months ago. Questioned about the threatened railway strike during the second week in March, Mr. Nehru declared that reports continued to reach the Government that a widespread programme of sabotage had been planned and that it was decided to enforce the strike by means of violence. . Fourteen of the people arrested in connection with the Calcutta outrages were members of the “Revolutionary Communist Party of India” which is a breakaway movement of the Communist Party. House Cheers Premier The House cheered when Mr. Nehru concluded: "In any action the Government may have to take, it will always remember the working classes are the backbone of the country whose general interests must not suffer." Mr. Krishna Menton, Minister in Charge of Prisons, said in Madras that 300 Communists were under detention in the Madras Province. Police in pursuit of the armed Communists who made a series of raids in the Calcutta area over the week-end have made 50 arrests. No fresh incidents have been reported in the past 24 hours, although the situation is still tense in Calcutta.

Following big demonstrations yesterday. speeches inciting lawless activities were made and large numbers of inflammatory leaflets were circulated-