FIRM GOVERNMENT NEEDED

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1930, Page 16

FIRM GOVERNMENT NEEDED

INDIA’S DIFFICULT PROBLEMS.

THE BUSINESS MAN’S VIEWPOINT.

There has recently been a display of renewed activity on the part of the Indian'Congres’s extremists in their efforts to paralyse the government cf the country, writes a prominent British business man in India to the Daily Mail., ■" '’ > '■ Bombay, which has long been the centre of intense activity, is now in a parlous condition, and this is wholly due to the weakness of the Government. It is apparently utterly unable, or unwilling, to put forth any effort to cope with the situation. The result is that the Congress has almost taken charge of Bombay—in the sense that although it is a,n illegal body it is able to impose its will on the people. # ■ The latest instance of this is the “black-listing” of European-managed cotton mills. Unless these mills are 75 per cent. Indian x owned, . unless they’ bank and insure with Indian concerns, and unless they give a undertaking , not to. take an active part in opposing the Congress, they will be completely boycotted. There is where your Indian shows himself in his true colours. If and when he gets the power he will undoubtedly seek to expropriate everything British. I hope the British mercantib public aTe alive to this prob? ability. . 1 ' What we in. this country demand before everything else, in any scheme of Dominion Status, are adequate . and satisfactory safeguards for the interests we have built up, which we claim to be allowed to carry on without hindrance.- ■ We insist that we shall not be the subjects of discriminatory legislation, and that we shall enjoy equal rights with. Indians as subjects of the Crown. These are points that-cannot too forcibly be brought before the notice of the home public and especially before Parliament. . We are now suffering as the result oi the unspeakably rotten government we have in India. One is almost tempted tn speak of it as not government at all, but as a series of concessions to the Congress mob. What prestige we had is rapidly disappearing, and those among the weaker , and illiterate classes , who have always looked upon us as their protectors are beginning to lose their f al tn in us. From one end of the country to the other the Congress appears to do. as it pleases, and never a .word from those in authority. ... Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, carries conciliation too far, and. in Eastern nations that is often interpreted as /a. rign of weakness. We need supremely a man of firmness, one who will stand no nonsense, and having given a decision will see it is carried out. Had we. had such a man nine months ago there would have been none of the deplorable happenings that have been so characteristic of the Congress propaganda. / These are the views of every European in Calcutta. As one put it at a recent meeting, “We are sick to death of weak government.” The forthcoming Round-Table Conference in England will, in my opinion, be abortive. There are too many conflicting elements to hope for anything better. In that event, what will Parliament give us I