Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1930. UNCALLED FOR INTERFERENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 142, 15 May 1930, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1930. UNCALLED FOR INTERFERENCE.

The 102 American clergymen who have sent a cablegram from New York to Mr Ramsay MacDonald, “urging him to avoid, by amicable settlement with Gandhi and his people, ‘a conflict which means catastrophe for both Britain and India’,” were guilty of an unpardonable interference in the concerns of the British Empire, which should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. It is morally certain that none of their number could be as well acquainted with the situation in India as the Viceroy and his immediate advisers, who are responsible for the order and good government of the great sub-conti-nent over which British rule has been established for the la§t 150 years, with manifest benefit to more than 300,000,000 people inhabiting that vast area, and any advice tendered by outsiders to the British Prime,, Minister, at the present critical juncture of affairs in regard to the treatment of Gaiidhi, is as ill-timed as it is unfortunate and uncalled for.

Gandhi, in preaching’ “civil disobedience” to his fellow countrymen, has raised the flag of revolt which can only be dealt with in the one way. While urging, or pretending to do so, that the campaign against the British Government must be one of nonviolence, Gandhi, has admitted iliat it must end in “bloodshed and anarchy,” and that it might even bring about “Kabul or Afghan rule.” Speaking at Bombay on January 12 he said, in the course of his reply to the views expressed on those lines by several leaders, that his demand for independence, and his movement in that direction, might end in that way: “I would prefer all these (he added), because from that I hope to get independence, but I do not hope to get it by gold, silver or diamond bonds.” The “civil disobedience” campaign has been condemned by Liberals and Socialists alike. Mr Lloyd George, writing in the London Daily Mail of January 13, said: “The Government must make it clear beyond possibility of doubt that they will not tolerate ‘civil disobedience-’ It must be known before any active steps are taken by Labourists that every effort to organise sedition will be Srmly dealt with.” Mill. N. Brailsford, a Socialist, writing in the New Leader on January 3, said: “There is one service, and one only, which, a Labour Government faced with this situation may be abl6 to render India and our own good name. It cannot concede mde-

pendence, or discuss it, or prepare for it; that path, even if we thought it the best (as few of us do), is closed to a minority Government.,. What it may be able to do is to lay down the steps by which, within a measurable period India shall attain to the. status of a Dominion, no plainly that no reasonable doubt shall remain of our good faith.” But Lord Birkenhead, writing in the Daily Telegraph on January 18, pointed out that “complete Dominion status—entailing the complete control by Nationals of the internal administration of their country, the conduct of its fiscal policy, the development of its resources, and its defence against foreign Powers—requires a united and experienced people, trained in the art of government. India (he says, and very truly) is not such a nation. It is not a nation at all—it is a continent of separate and mutually hostile fragments.” That fact has been given prominence in these columns again and again, and those who know India best recognise that British rule has alone been able to hold those “mutually hos tile fragments” together, and to preserve the peace of the country, save for those occasional outbursts of strife, prompted by racial and religious hatred, between Hindus and Mussulmen.

Gandhi has practically declared that he is prepared to accept “Kabul or Afghan rule” in preference to British. Communistic in tone and principle, he would hand the country over to anarchy ai»d bloodshed, if thereby the ends at which he aims might be attained. And it is on behalf of this man, whom all attempts on the part of the Viceroy and the Indian Government have failed to conciliate, that 102 American clergymen are urging Mr Ramsay MacDonald to come ,to “an amicable settlement,” as if terms short of actual and complete surrender on . the Hindu Mahatma’s claims were possible. The cable messages that are being received from day to day make it fairly clear that the “civil disobedience” campaign, initiated by Gandhi, is confined largely, if not wholly, to his Hindu co-re-ligionists, and that it is carrying no weight with the Moslem population. The British Socialist Government having sanctioned the Viceroy’s action in arresting Gandhi, who is now in safe custody, can hardly go back upon their action, although the British Independent Labour Party has, according to the London Daily News of January 21st, through Mr Fenner Brockway, M.P., declared its support of the Indian people in their struggle for self-government. Mr Brockway, speaking at Baltimore (U.S-A.) on January 20 (as reported in the same paper) expressed “the hope that even now our Labour Government may go further and find a basis for discussion on terms of equality with Indian leaders.” It is a particularly unfortunate feature of present day British politics that Socialist mmebers of the House of Commons take it upon themselves, as Mr Brockway has done, to make alarmist statements abroad concerning the domestic affairs of the British Empire. This gentleman expressed the opinion at Baltimore that, if the British Labour Government could not find'a basis for discussion on terms of equality with /Indian leaders, “acts of violence will inevitably occur, British public opinion will become inflamed, arrests will be made, aeroplanes will drop bombs, and a struggle between India and England which none of us can think of without terror will be under way.” Mr Brockwav's speeches on that and other occasions would almost seem to have been responsible for the cabelgram sent by the 102 American clergymen to Mr Ramsay MacDonald. But, reading of the terrible, happenings m Texas, particular’s of which were cabled from New York the previous day, it might be thought that the reverend gentlemen concerned would have been better employed in counselling their fellow, citizens to observe the decencies of law and order, and to abandon the fearful savagery which characterised their'action at Sherman, rather than in advising Mr Ramsay MacDonald do make terms with the Indian apostle of misrule and anarchy.