THE KING IN INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14855, 5 December 1911, Page 7

THE KING IN INDIA.

Tie landing of Britain's King and Queen on Indian soil, en route to their coronation in the ancient city of the Moguls, could hardly occur at a more momentous epoch in the history of East and West, After a long, period of quiescence, the ageilong; conflict between Cross . and >Crescent has been renewed in North Africa with sanguinary results. The outcome none can foresee. Not oply has an act of aggression by a :Christian Power aroused the Mahofllwaji peoples of North and Central Africa, but the threats of that Power are directed against Stamboul itself —the seat of the Turkish Sultan, who

in to this day the Caliph, or spiritual head of the Mahomedan world. Naturally, all Islam is stirred, from Morocco (now nearly French) and British Nigeria eastward to Egypt, India, and Dutch-owned Java. In *11 this tumult the one note of calm was the momentary peace that fell s!| on the 'Combatants as the King- ' Emperor passed through their midst. mgh lighthouses in the Red Sea had been extinguished by Turkey, but the Sultan decreed the relighting of these Moslem lamps as the greatest ; ruler in the Mahomodan world passed down the historic Arabian } : s coast. : One wonders whether it is a '*« coincidence that the vessel which j bears him is called by the name of 'J>he city in which Mahomet found .refuge. En route, in Egypt, where . Britain administer 3 the affairs of at lea3t 10,000,000 Mahomedans, King George received the Sultan of Turkey's eldest son bearing from the . . Caliph a written expression of good wishes; , our King gave in' return a . Bealed letter, which missive may yet bear a share in the making of history. It is noteworthy that the Egyptian riots which had preceded the King's i arrival, and which undoubtedly were related to the war waged by Italy, have since been stilled. In India VJ&U, another sort of history is in ; .the.making, and that is the attempt w tOr graft Western democracy upon r Oriental life. The loyalty of the Indian Mahomedans has been ■ described as the bulwark of British "power in India, and it will be remembered that the special correspon- •, dent of the Times, while reaffirming W lB loyalty, declared that the ,Indian Mahomedans regard the f>| .British reforms with apprehension, I as tending to put power into the i , .panda of the Babus and Brahmans. $ It is all a very complex problem, and I British policy has in Tripoli, Turkey, v-V ® roc co, Egypt, and India a task requiring a master mind. That the ■ l^r 8 ' 5 visit to India will strengthen the hand of British statesmen goes ■without saying, for it marks. new ,®poch of friendship and mutual confidence not only between India and Britain but between the East and ,&e West. ''''