INDIAN POSSIBILITIES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 241, 25 September 1922, Page 3

INDIAN POSSIBILITIES.

One of the fears most frequently expressed by New Zealanders when reference is made Io the Near East trouble is that out of it will grow and spread a religious fanaticism that may set aflame India and others of the Empire’s possessions, where the Mohammedan element is strong among the subject peoples. in Dunedin at the present time is tWptain Latouche, a retired officer of the Indian Marines, who has himself .‘pent 34 years in personal touch with events in India and many of whose family, including his father, have played a prominent part in the civil administration and business development of the country. By reason of these facts and by reason also of the fact that Captain Latouche is very obviously a shrewd observer and a thinker, there may be given to some of the more fearful a measure of assurance in the statement by Captain Latouche that trouble of any magnitude is very improbable in Inuia. And it should be understood that the captain does not speak of condition of years past, for it is a stretch of only six or seven months since he left his native country. One of the principal reasons for his belief that no trouble will occur advanced by Captain Latouche during an interview with an Otago “Daily Tunes” reporter on Wednesday is that the Indian soldier had enough of the modern methods of intensive fighting when he endeavoured to stand against the Germans. Previous to that, he had always had the big guns behind him, but when they Were facing him he gathered an altogether new and by no means pleasant conception of,,the morale-shat-tering effect of shell fire. Every soldier who had experienced that, said the captain, had taken a dreadful story back to his village, and it would be difficult to gauge the importance of that story, for it had shown the Indian that brave and great in war as he is, he is no match for the machines of the white man. But apart from that aspect of the position, it had to be remembered that the Mohammedans in India were dominated by the Hindoos whose chiefs were loyal to the Crown. It was from their States that Britain recruited most of the troops for the native regiments. Gandhi might talk as much as he liked about a better feeling between the Hindoos and tho Mohammedans, but there was nothing in it. The recent Moplah rising, which was really a fanatical outburst against the Hindoos, showed how much there was in Gandhi’s contention. More than that, there was a schism among the Moiiammendans, the two sects, the Shias ttud the Sunnis, being very unlikely ever to unite in order to wage war against a common enemy on religiouA grounds. ■ But Captain Latouche also had something to say about the weakening of the administration in India which ,oi course, was not a good sign. He said it was mainly due to the introduction of Indians into the Civil Service. The Indian Was naturally corrupt political ly and those servants could not be trusted, speaking generally. More than that, the innovation tended to alienate the be»t brains of the English public schools which, under the old system, often found their way into the J.C.S. It was not to be expected that a young man of good family who had passed the highest education test of the kind in tho world would care to begin work under a native. The old type of C.S. man settled corruption and gave one native a fair deal as against another, but the Indian servant was too susceptible to palm-greasing for work of that nature. A grievance against the modern civil servant was that he very seldom learnt the Indian vernacular, consequently, when administcriiL? justice he (ould not take direct evidence and the chances were that the life of an innocent man might be sworn away through the agency of a corrupt interpreter.

Declaring that, nevertheless, the unrest was “not worth twopence.” Captain Latouche proceeded to say that the Indian recognised that his property was much safer under British protection than it would be otherwise. That was the opinion of the ignorant man, and it was the opinion of nine-tenths of the educated men. It was true that there were disturbances, but all of them were the work of a few agitators, and when they were stopped the crowds went away home quietly. A riot in India had to be led, and half the time the followers did not know why they were in it. Speaking from an intimate knowledge of these things he could say that the newspaper reports of uprisings were greatly exaggerated. Half the time the agitators wore simply men with a desire to gain something for them.-elves, and they led the others into trouble. Recognising this the British authorities exercised great patience with rioting crowds. A little show’ of force and determination was generally all that was needed to quell the ugliest-looking disturbance. Still, it had to be stated that the general opinion among the Anglo-Indians was that the Government had not put its foot down early enough. If it had imprisoned the prominent agitators 18 months ago there would now have been only a few men in gaol instead of the thousands who had been incarcerated. But the treatment meted out to General Dwyer after the Amritsar affair had made the military very cautious; it had tended to deaden initiative with bad results. Questioned as to the attitude of the Indians towards the whites, Captain Latouche said that it was the most friendly possible. Very seldom was there anything heard of a white being hurt in a riot. He had hunted right through the country from north to south and east to west and never had ho received the slightest show of incivility or discourtesy. Many of his best friends were among the natives, he said, and the reporter saw’ with interest n pair of sleeve links, bearing the royal coat of arms of a prom.rent rajah, a present in recognition of the captain’s shouting 100 quail for three days in succession in topping the “bag” of the rajah’s guests. It may bo mentioned that Captain Latouche is the husband of Miss Daisy