Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JULY 26, 1920. INDIAN FERMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15276, 26 July 1920, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JULY 26, 1920. INDIAN FERMENT.

! We are glad that otf* section at apyrate of the British Parliament— the House of Lords— has had the decency to pass a resolution of protest against the treatment meted out to n- British general who had the courage to actpromptly and decisively in an exceedingly ugly situation which threatened tHe security of India. General Dyer, thousands of sympathisers feel, did not have a square deal in the nianner in which he was deaLt with by the Army' authorities. Tho latter had a full year to consider, tho case, but, as lio himself points out, , ho had to determine his courso in half a minute. He believed then and believes still, and there is a wealth of opinion from Army officers and others in India to support him, that if ho had hesitated' or sho\vn any sign of weakness when tho Amritzai- mob refused to disperse his little force would halve been -swept away like chaff 'before tho wind, and that tho -whole district or province might have been in a blaze in. a few hours, and thousands entrusted to his protection would have lost their lives. If General Dyer is right his act saved : a hundred Jives for every one taken. Not only was General Dyer's act approved; at • ' . '-' '.-•••'/'■■

the time by -every, officer and. residentin India, who knew the fermrnt that was seething in' tho Punjab, but it was npeei.illy commended by. his chief and he wns sent out on other duty for which also lie was commended. After the danger was over and people who , had never been near the scene hegaii-% to .denounce the massacre a . commission"^ was held and the general was repriY I n.anded and ordered to resign. .This commmission did not give General. Dyer a fair opportunity of presenting Y his rase.. He was not tried, as should have been rthe case, by officers vriio" KScl served in India and who had had to face some such crisis and make similar quick decisions. In the past mahy British officers, civil and niilitarv, have been held to blame because they temporise"** and hesitated until they -lost control, causins- the sacrifice 1 pf'thousands of lives. There have been historic massacres in India that might 'have been averted, by quick decision? Those who have denounced Dyer including- the 'impetuous Mr ! Winston Churchill, would "have been more severe if through his failure to enforce .ord'era he had made it necessary to suppress a rcbell'on and to explain' to the people of Ensland and the people of -India a vast slaughter of men and women of both -countries. Britain must rely opher officers to act on their own judo--*" ment m times, of crisis. British people know that officers in their sArmy do not wantonly butcher the natives ..of ; the country that thov aro appointed to protect, and there is ample evidence^that' • General Dyer was no against a verv cntical situation? ' This condition, 'to a greater or less- extent., still exists. India, says a reliable correspondent 'is in a ferment. The? British Raj is facmsr the^most- serious condition it . has had to deal with since the SenoymutS J J n ?; dust '' in 7 fe filled with' ag't*-' tion, stnlres, plot,, and more or le«s open warfares aea.mst the Ooveriimtot. and her northern horder is kept in' tn'ShSSr by «f mountain ntfci £ Ti d a¥ P°ssib«litv of a' new attack bv the Afghans. Mohammedans and Hindoos, to a certain extent, are iimted .in opposit.on to British rule Agitation, over the . Turkish Calfoha.'-o S-i f- Gn S . ei * erl u,)on h ? th * Hindoo evolnt.onaries- to^briiKT Mohammedans into their., plots. Tlie Hindoos are lareely responsibly for the strengtliYof Mohammedan, over the humiliation of SL / v"'' T 1 V cb th ey h«ve carefully lonwnted-.and. have now brought to 'a high pitch s,nce the Tnrkish Tr ea \ v lifts made. the- degradation p_ : the Porte . ati accomplished fact. The turrhml -'• Has - been uicreasod bv propaganda*engineered bv tho Russian ,Sov'et Governmep. 1 .? .•which has fpund the Indian situation ** T? a .x- t0 ™ dcr for an attack on. Grerjt Britain. The seat of Bolshevik: -plpftiifg in Indians Kanul. where tho Soviet 'hh ' lound the new Afsyhan Ameer a readr instrument for its schemes to 'drive Britain- out of Asia. Instigated 'by a Bolshevik mission at Kabul, the Ameer made an attack on Midia a year? ago. • only to be severely handled,- but he i« now said to have: received promises of extensive military and financial pid .from the Soviet and to he nearly c^ vinced that he "can make a •sucoessf Vl war pn ...India. The Afghan? "attiiu^ keeps the border tribes 'stirred- -"'i*-. Frbm the Persian, side, there is "al-i trouble threatened by* the Persian revolutionaries, stirred up 'by the sair- '■*' misehie£-makers. the" Russian Re^ \ India at th,e present time. is eel-tain"-.'-' one of. our biggest problems of .Empire. ? .^--»»»-MW«i---l' "