CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 26 August 1930, Page 9

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

LATE EDITION

* CAMPAIGN IN INDIA BOYCOTT AND PICKETING SITUATION IMPROVED. (British Official Wireless. 1 Received 1.30 p.m. to-dav. RUGBY, Aug. 2.3. In a weekly appreciation by the Government of India of the situation in India it is stated that by August 19 the Afridi la.shkars had been dispersed, although a few small parties still remained in the district. Congress emissaries from British territory are, however, reported to have passed up the Bara Valley to urge the Afridis to renew hostilities. About 3030 Afridis were present at the annual Friday jirgs at Bagli on the 22nd and an aeroplane doing reconnaissance there was fired upon. On the northern border of the Peshawar district the Haji of Turonzai and his emissaries have remained active. Representatives of the Utman Khal tribe interviewed the deputy commissioner on the 16th. They undertook' to commit no more offences against the Government and to refrain from joinvAng any hostile lashkar and to refuse passage to any hostile lashkar of other tribes. in view of this undertaking their eleven prisoners captured at Palloi were released. it is clear, however, that the Haja has met with a good deal of success among the Upper Mohmands and possibly some part of tiro Utman Klial tribe, and still has great hopes of raising a lashkar to attack the Peshawar district by way of Gandao. There has been intensive bombing of Massazzi and Para, and one section of Para Chamkannis have come into Parachinar to make overtures for a settlement. Agitation, however, lias spread to other tribes. On August 19 Alimadzai Ghilzai collected lashkars in the neighbourhood of TJtsar and Bargawisar. Reconnaissance aeroplanes were heavily fired upon from these two points and militia pickets in Upper Kurram were, fired on from TJtsar. Thanks to the excellent defensive measures adopted by the Kurram militia and village levies, together with successful measures adopted by the local Afghan authorities to restrain tribes on their side of the border, the liostiles were dispersed after a few days. Provincial reports for the first fortnight of August continue to show a marked improvement in most provinces. In Madras the number of breaches of the law and consequent prosecutions continues to fall. In Bengal the; improvement has been so marked that it is possible to discern a tendency to return to normal conditions. There lias been less picketing, particularly in Calcutta, and the movement generally has much weakened. A good sign in several districts is the increased attendances at school and the boycott of educational institutions seems to be falling. In the united provinces the chief feature of the fortnight was an attackon educational institutions, from which the Mohammedans, however, . kept aloof. There has been very serious intywference with studies at all Allaliafbc d, Benares, and Lucknow universities, but recent reports in the Press state that students have revolted in the first mentioned university against tin's interference with their future careers. The Punjab records a definite and practically universal decline in Congress activities and the movement is moribund. The situation in Bombay city is more stable so far as law and order are concerned, but economic conditions tend to deteriorate and more mills have been closed down. The above record of improvement must he qualified in certain respects. The boycott of foreign goods is still effective in many towns, and picketing, although on the decline, is still practised to a ’considerable; extent. Although, therefore, the situation in most provinces is distinctly easier, there is no province in which conditions are normal or in which it can he safely said that some activities of tbs civil disobedience movement may not assume fresh vigour. There lias, fortunately, < been a marked improvement in Sind, ' where the communal situation was reported last week to be serious. The ; position is now under control.