AFFAIRS IN INDIA

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1930, Page 6

AFFAIRS IN INDIA

the barrier of caste. HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. “India is-not yet ready for home rule,” said Mr. R. W., Hanson, formerly Post-master-General at Madias, who arrived at Auckland by. the Aorangi. Mr. Hanson expressed the opinion, however, that if the present Indian-Round Table Conference decided to grant India self-govern-ment under a strong British-India Government no European in India-would object, because it was felt that the Indian peoples might be’given further opportuni-, tes to enter the higher posts, of which they held a larger number at present. The caste problem remained the great barrier to real unity in the country. All-parties in India had sent delegates to the Round Table Conference except the Congress Party, which was in favour of independence, and did not believe in holding any kind of conference with the authorities in Great Britain. AIT British associations in India were- sympathetic toward the Indian people in their desire for further advancement or even Dornin-

ion status. Ruling princes in India, who had also sent al delegation to the conference, stood for the paramount power, in. India being British, said Mr. Hanson. They, did not desire interference 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'indirectly 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 Gandhi, who posed as a sort of religious reformer, started' his,movement against the Government; a,bout .ten years ago, he received a tremendous following of the lower castes, continued Mr. Han* son., Gandhi preached strongly against all Western forms of civilisation • and medical science,- but subsequently when he was interned and had an attack of > ppendicitis he insisted on being attended by an English doctor and nurse and as a result lost some of his prestige. Referring to the crusade started this year by Gandhi against the salt tax, Mr. Hanson said that salt was manufactured by > 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. As an Indian labourer earned a shilling ■ a day and his clothes cost him nothing, the tax ■ was not very severe. " < ’ Mr. Hanson was ' optmistic about - the ■future of India. He said the masses now realised that the British were their best friends and that the agitators who ■had been misleading them were the real •cause ‘of ‘ thdir. economic aiid other troubles. India was at present, of course, feeling -the effects of the low- prices ruling for tea, jute and many other of her principal exports.