INDIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20964, 1 March 1930, Page 11

INDIA.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —In your article under the above heading on February 22, you make one statement at least respecting which I would like to direct a few pointed questions. The statement I refer to is: “The progress India has made is to be accounted for by the fact that a thousand million pounds of British capital have been invested in railways, roads, harbours, and industries, and that the inhabitants have lived free from their ageold terror of invasion.” 1. Who benefited most by the investment of British capital in India—Britain or India? 2. Was it not the plunder of India by British “traders,” and the- bleeding of India by British officials, that provided England with the capital so to inmost? 3. Were not most of the railways and roads in India built for strategic purposes rather than for the development of the country? 4. Has not the Army maintained in India (at India’s expense) been used more for the purpose of keeping out other exploiters than for the protection of the Indian people? _ 5. Has not the reduction of India’s millions from a state of reasonable wealth and comfort, to a condition of abject misery and poverty, and illiteracy (not ignorance) been a greater scourge than the terror of invasion? 6. Has not the bogey of threatened invasion been largely created by those who benefit by the Indian connection, on the principle that a bad excuse is better than none at all?—I am, etc., Blucher.