UNREST IN INDIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 21

UNREST IN INDIA

EXTREMISTS’ CAMPAIGN. DELHI, April 21. In connection with the disfigurement of the Calcutta memorials, the police arrested a man who was about to repeat the operation, holding a pot of black liquid and a brush. He was well dressed, but apparently slightly deranged. He admitted the former outrages. The man said he was a member of a Punjab anarchist society. A MUTINY IN GAOL. DELHI, April 27. A serious mutiny occurred in the Presidency Gaol at Calcutta, arising out of discontent engendered by the belief that political prisoners received better treatment than other prisoners. The trouble came to a head when a warder struck a prisoner. Eighteen hundred convicts refused to parade. They armed themselves with sticks and sledge hnjmmers and attempted to rush and set fire to the jute sheds and oil tanks. The warders fired,

but the outbreak was not quelled till armed troops and the police arrived. The gaol is now under military control. The casualties are reported to be heavy. Three men are known to be dead. Some of the buildings were damaged bv fire. - CALCUTTA, April 29. Fire started in Calcutta Gaol during the riot and destroyed the workshops. The estimated damage is three lakhs of rupees. The situation is fairly quiet, but the convicts are truculent. The gaol authorities have resumed control, but soldiers are retained in case of further trouble. Forty ; six convicts were sent to hospital with gunshot wounds. Nineteen escaped during the turmoil, but two were rearrested. BRITAIN’S MOHAMMEDAN POLICY. LONDON, May 2. The Daily Express’s Paris correspondent interviewed the Aga Khan, His Highness Sir Mahomed Shah, who said that unless Great Britain revised her Mohammedan policy a great Indian revolution was inevitable. Great Britain could only remain in India So long as India willed it. Great Britain could not govern India by giving the insignia of the Garter to one man, and imprisoning another. Lord Reading’s terms, as submitted by Mr E. S. Montagu, were India’s minimum. India might be quiet for two weeks, three months, or a year, but there would be more trouble unless the policy Was revised. [the Aga Khan is the spiritual head of the Khojahs and leader of the Indian Mohammedan community. He has been accorded by the King Emperor the rank and status of a First Class Chief of the Bombay Presidency for lift.]