CHOLERA STRIKES TREKKING REFUGEES

Northern Advocate, 8 September 1947, Page 5

CHOLERA STRIKES TREKKING REFUGEES

(Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, September 7. CHOLERA has struck among the fleeing thousands ot refugees trekking across the Punjab plains, says Reuters Lahore correspondent. The refugees are already weakened by exposure, undernourishment and exhaustion.

Authorities today hurriedly set up barriers in the affected area to isolate groups of refugees until they can be inoculated.

Minister of Home Affairs (Sardar V. Patel) and the commander of the British forces (Field-Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck) to deal with the Punjab situation.

The West Punjab Government is considering plans for what may be the greatest trek in centuries—evacuation of all Moslems willing to leave the East Punjab. . , Starting point for the caravan would be Ludhiana, 30 miles south of Jullundur. The caravan would collect tributary columns as it moved westward, until, it is estimated, it would include 500,000 Moslems, with their cattle and household goods. . A Government spokesman tomgnt said conditions in the West Punjab were returning to normal. Rioters, mostly Hindus and Sikhs, in the main shopping centre of New Delhi, looted about 50 shops. A police magistrate said 300 persons were arrested. A 24-hour curfew has been imposed throughout Delhi Province. REVOLT IN MYSORE Troops were called out in Mysore City, the capital of the State of Mysore, after a large crowd tried to storm the Maharajah’s Palace, reports Reuters correspondent in Banaglore. The police pushed the crowd back with batons. The crowd barricaded the road with trees and boulders, smashed street lamps and cut telephone wires. They stoned the police, who then fired, killing one person and wounding four. The authorities have closed schools and colleges until September 14. They imposed a 48-hours’ curfew. A military guard was posted at the home of the Minister of Education (Dr R. C. Royal) after student demonstrators tried to attack the house.

“Three weeks after the young flags of India and Pakistan flew for the first time over the two new Dominions, the Indians have concluded that their dream of freedom has turned to a nightmare,” says the New York Herald-Tribune’s correspondent in New Delhi.

The correspondent quotes typical remarks : “Independence Day should be written not in letters of gold but in letters of blood,” said a bitter doctor in Lahore.

“Freedom has brought us nothing but mob rule,” a young army officer in Amritsar said.

“BRING BACK THE RAJ” *

Their remarks, the correspondent says, are echoed by thousands of voices of the homeless and wounded of the Punjab and Calcutta. He gives a grim, general picture of savagery, intolerance, fear and chaos. “Equally disturbing,” he says, “although certainly understandable, is the tendency on the part of the humble and unhappy masses to cry for the return of British rule and to imply that they have been foresaken by the protecting father. “ ‘Bring back the British Raj’ is the popular slogan of thousands in the refugee camps when a Westerner appears, and last week flowers decked the statue of Queen , Victoria in Lahore.” - ! • ••= y*

Throughout the riots, the statue .has been a place of recognised sanctuary, and it is frequently garlanded-with flowers.

Mr Gandhi’s secretary said that Mr Gandhi, before he broke his fast, warned the community leaders who guaranteed peace in Calcutta that! if a communal frenzy broke out again he would have to begin an “irrevocable fast,” which could not be broken once it was undertaken. ■■ ■;

The police at one time used tear-gas. In the suburb of Bangaloren the police fired twice on defiant crowds, killing two people. t A campaign for the establishment of “responsible government” began in Mysore on Monday. The Government on Thursday ordered the arrest of the leaders of the State Congress Party, which is said to have organised strikes and processions as part of a civil disobedience campaign. From New Delhi it is reported that the Indian Government has appointed Mr K. C. Neogy as special Cabinet Minister to handle the relief and rehabilitation of Punjab refugees. PUNJAB PROBLEM The Indian Cabinet has also appointed a special committee, including the Governor General (Earl Moutbatten), the Prime Minister (Mr Nehru), the