INDIAN TERRORISTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22172, 27 July 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

INDIAN TERRORISTS

ORGANISATION DESCRIBED "GREATER MENACE THAN EVER" MAN WHO IS ON BLACK LIST A short, mild-mannered bespectacled journalist, whom Indian terrorists have been trying to kill for years, came quietly through the Customs at Croydon airport one day last month, lie returned home for a six-months peaceful holiday after being in India for fourteen years. It is the first time he has been in Britain for twenty-one years. . . .. . . Mr. H. G. Franks, the journalist, is the English editor of tho only Muslim English newspaper in India, the Star of India. Ho is the only non-oflicial who was given special facilities to study terrorism from tho inside. He made the study—and as a result is on the terrorists' black list. " I had a guard to follow me about, he said, "but I dispensed with him some months ago when tho reforms came in. Those reforms took the wind out of the terrorists sails, and tilings became quieter. . - " They became so quiet that .1 am told many people over here have the mistaken impression that terrorism iu India is dead. That is a fatal mistake. Terrorism is very much alive. It is more dangerous, threatening, and menacing now than ever it was, for tlie terrorists have gone underground. " They get their finances by robbing mail trains, sometimes wrecking them and looting the dead and the mails. They buy their arms from sailors at the ports and by smuggling them over the border. Two German sailor* from a German passenger liner were recently sentenced to long terms of im-

prisonment for Belling arms to the terrorists' agents. ... " Certain well-known leaders are still at large; still receiving the assistance of a large sympathetic section ot the Hindu population. The authorities know, for example, that in one town there are at least three or four terrorist leaders, but cannot find them. " At the height ot the terrorist activities precautions were taken that would have done credit to Chicago. White men, known to be on the black list, were followed by guards who had not onlv revolvers drawn but ready cocked. Terrorists walked about almost openly. " There are still about 2500 known or suspected terrorists in prison as ' detenus,' for whom there has been no trial, but who are known to be dangerous men associated with terrorist organisations. , . , " These men receive allowances which are amazing. Their families are kept by the State. Their insurances are paid. Some of the men receive the allowances of £IOO a month, just because in business life they are barristers or lawyers and so on. " In spite of the present apparent quietude, recruiting is still going on. Anarchist armies are still being trained in secret."