UNREST IN INDIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 129, 4 June 1919, Page 5

UNREST IN INDIA

DANGER NOT YET OYER. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS PROMISED. STATEMENT BY MR MONTAGU. (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Australian & N.Z Cable Association) LONDON, May 22. Speaking in the House of Commons, ■the Hon. E. S. Montagu, Secre.ary for India, said the internal danger in India was not yet past. Fighting had occurred in the Presidency of Bombay, involving one-itenth of the area and one-third of the population. In the Punjab there had been an outbreak at Delhi. Trouble had occurred at Calcutta also, but to a minor extent. There had been no trouble in Madras or the Central or United Provinces. The trouble was wholly confined to the towns. Events had showed the unmistakeablo loyalty of India as a whole. Altogether nine European and 400 Indian lives had been lost. The perplexity in the Mohammedan world arising out of Turkey’s defeat, Mr Montagu continued, was one of the causes of the Indian unrest. Another arose from fear that the promises of 1917 would not be carried out. The Rowlat-t Act was very unpopular, but it would no: be used except to cope with remarkable revolutionary movements. M)’ Montagu said he was convinced that they must proceed without _ delay with a Bill providing for alteration of the Indian Government. The Cabinet agreed to the introduction of a Bill at the beginning of June. The keytsono of Indian reform would be the transference of power from the bureaucracy to the people. This might be gradual in its application, but it must be real.