INDIAN AFFAIRS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17453, 30 December 1930, Page 7

INDIAN AFFAIRS

EXTREMIST ACTIVITIES ■ MR. R. W. HANSON’S VIEWS SYDNEY, Dec. 6. Mr." R. W. Hanson, last PostmasterGeneral at Madras, India, who is visiting Sydney, yesterday expressed tho opinion that -it the Indian Hound laLie Conference decided to grant India self government under a strong British India Government no European in India would- uoject because it was felt that the Indian people might be given lur.thei opportunities tu enter the higher posts, oi which they held a large number at present. All parties in India had sent delegates to tne Round Table Conference, said i\lr. Hanson, except the Congress party which was in favor of independence, and did not believe in hoiding any Kind of n conferencei with the authoiities in Great Britain. All British associations . m India were sympathetic towards the Indian people in their desire for further advancement or even dominion status. Ruling princes in India, who Intel also sent a delegation to the conference, stood for the paramount power in India being British. At the same time they wanted to see their own people—they i uied about one-third of the population of India—enjoy liberties which they were prepared to concede up to a certain point. But they did not desire micrtereuce with the Internal affairs of their provinces by the Imperial Legislative Council at Delhi. The princes had their own Chamber of Princes, which met at Delhi, and which was directly under the Viceroy of India. They did not want their provinces exploited by the extremist party in India, and they rigidly excluded from their territories all agitators employed by the Congress party. When Mr. Gliandi, who posed as a sort of religious reformer, about 10 years ago started a movement against the Government he received a tremendous following of the lower castes. Mr. Gliandi was subsequently interned, and had an attack of appendicitis. He insisted upon being attended by an English doctor and an English nurse, and as a result lie lost some of his piestige with his followers, because he had preached against all western forms of civilisation and medical science. Gliandi believed in (i form of passive resistance, and his followers were taught by various forms of propaganda that they must he nonviolent. If an extremist procession was opposed by the police those taking part in the procession would squat, down in the road and block traffic. That eventually led to a certain amount of active ooposition. because rowdv elements join off the procession, and when the leaders of the procession were taken into custody the rowdy element attacked the police, who were at times compelled to use their firearms, and bloodshed occurred.

In some remote places, said Mr. Hanson, as a result of extremist propaganda, it was believed that the British Raj had come to an end,-that the Gliandi Raj had rmne into existence, and that there would lie no further taxes. This year Mr. Gliandi had started a crusade against the Salt Tax. Salt was inanu-, faeDired Ey the British Government in India, and sold to the people at a very low rate, the tax .being about 3s a year for an ordinary family. Mr. Gandhi told his followers that before the British went to India there was no such tax, and that they must all oppose it. Part of the crusade included the boycotting of British goods, and “civil disobedience” of law and order. Nevertheless, trie country was quite safe for travellers and tourists, the rowdy element, which was confined to a few cities like Bombay and Delhi, having been recently taught a severe lesson by the authorities.- The masses now realised that the British were their best friends, ahd that the agitators, ’who had been misleading them, were the real cause of their economic and,other troubles,

Mr. Hanson will depart for New Zea land next Thursday.