FRIENDLIER SPIRIT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 April 1926, Page 2

FRIENDLIER SPIRIT.

QUIET RESTORED TO INDIA. Lord Reading will have India m a far better state than he found her. Even the severest cities of his administration as Viceroy concede this obvious fact, though they may disagree as to the extent his personal influence has been responsible for the change, wrote the Daily Mail special correspondent (Sir Percival Phillips) on January 15, after a tour of investigation in India. He assumed office at a time when sedition was everywhere showing its head. To-day, practical sedition is almost dead. The outburst of hatred

rich swept the country like a conflagration at the height of Gandhi’s power has died out, leaving only a few smouldering embers. Armed revolt ,is no longer preached, except by a handful of fanatics in. Bengal. Comparative peace prevails. This is undoubtedly due in part to physical conditions, for India is enjoying greater prosperity. She has had four good monsoons in succession, a thing which is almost unprecedented, and the people who were made receptive to political propaganda by privation no longer turn to militant agitators for relief. Nevertheless, Lord Reading has been directly intrumental in improving the state of India by the exercise of firmness at the right time, and, above all, by his wise and unfailing patience in dealing with difficult situations. His reluctance .to take extreme measures early in his administration was interpreted, both in the Government of India and out of it, as a sign of weakness. He was criticised for showing too great a willingness to listen to extremist agitators. He declined to be rushed into a policy of repression which seemed to be clearly inuicated by the campaign of violence and intimidation which was increasing throughout the country.

For a year and a-half India suffered from the evil effects of the Gandhi A on-Co-operation movement, with its attendant disorders and riots. Lord Reading waited, with almost Oriental patience, until the psychological 1 moment, and then clapped Gandhi into prison. He had been warned that this act would “set India aflame.” But nothing happened. In the language of a disgusted follower of the Mahatma, “not even a dog barked.” Militant Gandhism died a peaceful death. ..■•> same quality of watchful restraint was displayed by Lord Reading pi dealing with other difficult problems. Native leaders who at first thought him weak because he would not be baited, grew to realise that he could be-unex-pectedly and disconecrtingly firm. He supported Lord Lytton in every step in dealing with the revolutionary movement in Bengal. That province is quiet to-day, thanks to the enforcement of an ordinance which gives the Government power to imprison dangerous agitators. They have been allowed full liberty even beyond reasonable limits, and then quietly interned when it was clear that their nefarious schemes were about to he put into effect.

In looking at India at the close of Lord Reading’s term of office, the fact that is most , apparent, even to the casual visitor,, is the complete and apparently hopeless disruption of the Indian Nationalists. They talk loosely about Home Rule for India, but much more about their factional differences. There are at least seven sections, each with its own leaders and distinct views. It is of little use to discuss the prospects of self-government for India while the chief elements of her political parties are unable to agree among themselves. The most absurd arguments and pleas have been put forward by the men who are asking for Home Rule. For example, Gandhi’s Indian Congress demanded a few days ago that, the British Government should declare war on South Africa for its “ill-treatment” of Asiatics. Moslem-Hindu Breach. The Nationalists are definitely divided on tiie question of working with the Government. Politics in India has always been a war of phrases, and the present internal struggle of contending factions centres around “Nop,-Co-operation, ’ ’ ‘ ‘Responsive Co-operation, ’ ’ and “Apparent Co-operation with obstruction from within”—the latter being a kind of “white-ant policy” of permeation. Most serious of all, however, is the breach between Moslems and Hindus. It has always been there, but recently an attempt was made by the late C. R. Das, of Bengal, to bring about a Mos-iem-Hindu pact whereby the two religions would divide public offices between them. The scheme never worked effectively; there were riots every now and then, and even in Calcutta a few weeks ago. C. Rk Das died in June last, and his artificial structure soon fell apart. It remained for 'Sir Abdul Rahman to shatter the whole theory of political fusion in a speech at the Moslem conference at Aligarh three weeks ago. He said quite frankly what has always been at the back of the mind of every native of India —namely, that there never has been and never will be unity between Moselms and Hindus under present conditions, and that so far as the Moslems were concerned they would infinitely prefer British rule to that of a Home Rul© Hindu Government.' Less Bitterness. Seventy million Moslems will never submit tflemselves to two hundred million Hindus. It may be said with equal certainty that the Hindu contemplate with real terror the possibility of their ever again coming subject to/ Moslem domination. They, too, would infinitely prefer British rule. Consequently the vexed problem of selfgovernment seems to be farther from settlement than ever. I am assured by competent observers of the state of India during the past five years that anti-British feeling is much less acute. There is less real bitterness in the attitude of Opposition leaders. There is also less suspicion, and a greater willingness to work with the Government in aerrying out reform measures, even though they continue to feed their supporters with fiery platitudes from the platform. On the whole, Lord Reading can contemplate the state of India with satisfaction. He has not accomplished all that he set out to do, hut undoubtedly he has done far more than seemed possible four years ago, and he will leave behind him the record of a sound, wise, and capable administration, which. m many respects may well serve as. a model for his successors Lord Irwin, formerly Mr. E. F. L. Wood.