The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1920. INDIA SLIPPING AWAY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3454, 7 April 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1920. INDIA SLIPPING AWAY.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

In these troublous times no part of the great British Empirelhas immunity from the insane operations of commercialism, and that greatest and grandest of all countries coming under British sway, India, is giving more calse ft!‘ concern than any other. Little is heard of the current social history of India in our daily newspapers, and from the nature of the little informat.ion that does filter through it might 'be thought the millions of that great 1.-isiatic peninsula were the most contented and happy peopleiupon earth. INo country has enjoyed entire freeldomgfrom the curse of the unpreceIdentea commercialist war, and India seems to have had to shoulder a burden too heavy for its heterogenous population to carry." The fact is that lhuman turmoil, lpdissatisfaction, discontent, and disruption of social conditions in India is so general, and of so serious a" character, that it has been deemed advisable to institute a stringent eensorship over all news submitted for publication in newspapers in other parts of the world. India is having to .sufler through being British; and it has become questionable whether government under commercialist influence [has pursued a policy’ that was best calculated to maintain loyality to theBritish Crown. So extreme has- revulsion of feeling to Britain become, that British people in India are now openly subjected to Native insolence in public places. Matters were not improved by the Government. raising the ‘value of the silver riipee from two [shillings to'about' half—a.-crown, for it made those who control the greatest ‘volume of silver coinage immensely richer, while" the condition of the very poor was rendered almost unbearable. This rise in the value of the rupee Caused a rush into the gold market, and so keen was the demand from India that it was largely |l'esponsible for the hitherto unprecei dented price of gold. which now stands at just. about five pounds twelve shili lings an ounce. and that price may be ltaken as the first indication of dear lrrioney that is to become general; 7throughout the Eiiipire. and all over‘ the -world. The trend of markets andl of money values are all in the direc—l tion of making the rich richer, and] the poor poorer. Commercialism has‘ done its deadly work in gathering in money from the working populations of all British Dominions, now it is about to deliver the inaster-stroke in making that money so much more valuable that it will buy more labour, and more of every commodity labour produces. The silver rupee value has been arbitrarily increased until British sterling is only worth. about seven rupees instead of ten. Even British sterling has been. depreciated as against the silver rupee, and merchants in this Dominion have at similarly unfavourable exchange rate to contend With in India, as they ll€lVO in purchasing from the United States. Truly has it been’ said that “money is the root of all evil,” which para-I phrased means that greed is the great-~' est and most destructive curse whichl civilisation has ever been subjected to. The position of a New Zealanderl in India, receiving remuneration ..t'ol'l lllS‘l:1l)O1_ll‘S from a British source is indevil parlous. In India. as in New’ Ze:l.l:lnd, prices of life necessaries have fltlvanced until the pound sterling svill only purchase a pre-war ten-sllillings’-“'0"“l~ ‘-Vlfllnfl the adverse rate of exchange wlfich reduces the pound by :1 further four or five shillings. the pound sterling sent by ‘bank draft

‘from this Dominion is only worth ‘something less than six shillings at ‘this present moment. ‘l-lence, India is lseething with sedition and open I'ebe_l--;lion; it is rich ‘ground for seeds of lßolshevism and revolution, which are -coming into that grand and glorious ‘country from Russia -and Germany, with ample gold behind it to make its influence the more deadly. In searching for cause of Indian unrest, the profiteering vulture of commercialism is discovered in its *1 shameless practices. Conmnercialism and ! materialism are twin brothers, they commenced an invasion of world civilisation at the same time, and they have worked together side by side, in India, as elsewhere, right to this present moment. These t.wins were rather more audacious -with their operations in'lndia than in most other places, for that body of conscienceless profitcering vultures known as the East India Company, to make their nafarious [practices easier and free from critic- ’ ism of the Christian cult, boldly adopted a policy of excluding ' Christian missionaries altogether i:'romltheir territories, giving the whole country over to the vigorous proselytising of Moliammedism. Britain is to-day in the hour of its greatest trial, reaping the whirlwind of the wind sown in India. by the twin brothers of comnler'cialisnl and materialism. India was denied the Christianity of Britain and left to the followers of Mahomet, and to-day it is the Mohammedan element that is the rapier at the British heart, while friendly Indian Christians are too restricted in number, and in all other ways, to render much aid to the British cause. India is racked and torn, struggling to live against the bloodsucking of the profiteering, exploiting octopus of commercialism, against the twin demons that dare not new force all apostles of the Christian cult out of the land by legislation, but they are ‘using their devilish power to starve them to death if "they will remain. Laws suppressing Christianity in India were ultimately withdrawn, and it. is to the uphill work of Christian people land teachers, who thereafter flocked Fin, Britain is indebted for the loyalty j of yet a considerable proportion of In- ‘ dian people. -Need anyone -marvel that ;'lndia is seething with sedition ‘and lsocial disruption‘? British traders insinuated their way with a religion of brotherly love, then"'finding the practice of that religion was a bar to trade robbery and the process" of slow starvation and semi-slavery they inflicted on the people, they passed a law mak‘ing the teaching of the brotherly love lcult. illegal, and its teachers were expelled altogether. In a last effort to placate India, the British Government has now had to give the country a ruler from amongst its own people; to permit the legislature to become largely composed of Indian people, and who will say that this is not a. long, Indian stride out of British rule? Commercialism and materialism came upon , civilisation together, they have work-N ed together,‘ destroyed together, and we will venture to prediet that they will, die togctherfi Peoples of the lvol'ld,'are, struggling for freedom and the right to live, but have not yet a full understanding of what they are struggling against. Nevertheless they are gaining victory, after victory overthe twin arch-fields? which are cunnl'n'gly camouflagingl themselves under the shadow of a cult, that is incompatible with their vllel crime, and which they banished from India. leaving the Indian people to be stricken. and divided by the cult of .\lollam.medi.sm. That twin octopus <=.ortninl,\' inel'ezlsterl British trade in India, but by what methods, and at‘ what cost? Wlmi"‘did it profit Britain { to dishonestly acquire. Indian trade, it in the end. India. is lost to Britain and becomes an intensely potent enemy“. 7» India was the richest gem in the British Crown, but it is fast passing away, lost by the depredations of worse than brutish greed. There is m“‘-13' T 0 be strict censorship of Indian news until social conditions in “NW Tich, yet. unhappy. country become either much better or worse.