UNREST IN INDIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 14 March 1914, Page 4

UNREST IN INDIA.

News concerning unrest in India comes almost as steadily as news about industrial dispe&ee in other parts of the world. One of the latest items is that there is much excitement at Delhi in consequence of arrests which have just been made in that city. Apparently, however, the excitement is not that of a community seething v/ith revolutionary sentiment, but just that which would b3 natural anywhere at | the reported discovery of persons who had made an attempt on the life of the chief public servant of the people. In this instance, it is now believed that, in connection with the arrests just made at Delhi, a ilue has been found to the conspirators concerned in the bomb outrage against the Viceroy on the occasion of the inauguration of the new capital. On that occasion, a bomb was thrown against the howdah of the elephant on which Lord and Lady Hardinge were entering the city, &nd the Viceroy was badly injured, while his wife escaped unhurt. Biit there is one particular point which it would surely be well to consider in connection with casual reports of unrest in India. No doubt there are occasional explosions of racial feeling there, but what are they in relation to the normal conditions of that great Empire's vast population of three hundred millions of people? In this connection it is observed in the February number of East and West, a monthly magazine published at Bombay, and owned and edited by Mr P. B. Malabari, a patriotic Parsi, that the Viceroy (Lord Hardinge) "has solved some mysteries, suih as the unrest among the ' moderates' of Bengal, but the great mystery of anarchical activity remains unsolved. Much light on the methods of the secret and determined eaomies of the British Government has already been thrown by the police. Yet more light is needed. Where do the young adventurers get their revolvers from, and the materials to manufacture bombs? Perhaps the bombs are easily manufactured, but how are the revolvers obtained, where are the young recruits captured, and how is their allegiance secured in a society which is never tired of protesting that it is loyal to the core? That the majority of people are innocent admits of little doibt. But it is equally plain that a small number can pursue their designs with practically uninterrupted -success." There may not be much that is reassuring i n this, but it is written from within, and should enable the reader to see more correctly than/ he can from casual current cable messages, the lie of the land in India.