The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1907. THE SITUATION IN INDIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13432, 2 November 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1907. THE SITUATION IN INDIA.

This/ morning's news from India bos M decidedly ominous sound. The warning issued to the Central Government by the Government 0/ Bengal, and 'tlie; expres-sion'-of-" opinion ■.■ from the LieutenantGovernor, leave no room. for. doubt that) the,, authorities are face to face with w * .situation of a- most serious- character. Ifi has always - -'.'been an «xiom of British rule in India that whatever clouds there might be upon . the horizon, !'» calm, confident demeanour must bo preserved, lest the mere suspicion of nervousness or dread should mislead the disaffected '.sections of the Indian peopie! ' We-may be sure, therefore, that the apprehensions indicated in the cable from Bombay rest upon a really .solid foundation, and that the. unrtfit which has disturbed India for months past is still far from dissipated. Why this persistent outbreak of disaffection should have overtaken the country at present is a, mystery which the most experienced Anglo-Indians seem powerless to explain. Of its existence there can be no doubt, but its causes remain absolutely invisible. The most remarkable feature of the whole movement is the absence of any definite grievance, Uw removal of. which would at once conciliate native opinion. So far as theGovernment is concerned, it has done nothing to rouse the people,to resistance, while the weakness of the British garrison 'which in 1857 helped to invite thts Mutiny cannot be' relied upon as a contributory cause of the present explosion of discontent. - The garrison in India was never so strong as. it is to-day, and yet this ist-h* time selected by the •diicated classes for conducting a campaign, the undisguised object of which is to throw off the rule of Britain and substitute for it a Government or many Governments, entirely native. , So much was made clear nearly -six months agoin speeches delivered in Madras' by Babu Chandra''Pal, perhaps the most eloquent, and certainly one of the ablest, of the leaders of Bengalee discontent. What ho desired was not the good government of India—he expressly repudiated that from an avowed fear that good government' might conciliate the masses—but the abr solute independence of his country from Travancore to the Himalayas. Of all j kinds of despotism, he said, the ,wo-"..'. »v a benevolent despotism, becaufie benevolence makes people acquiesce in despotism. Erea if India, • were entirely governed by Ihdiansi' .still, if they were under the sovereignty. of Great Britain, India, he pointed out, Mould not be independent. The Indian civilians would have to obey orders from England, and could not carry out theiiy.'own policy, which ought to be, first, the; imposition of enormous duties on all imported articles, and isecondlv th« .

refusal to Englishmen of permission to enter India, or to hold property there, or to develop Indian resources, and so cany off the natural wealth of the country to their distant islands. All this means the total removal of British -supremacy, which, of course, cannot be considered for. a jnbmenb 6y '.'. His- '.Majesty's Government either in England or in India itself. Apart from the loss of prestige which Great Britain mast suffer as the result of the abandonment of her Indian Empire, she is bound to remain loyal to the moral trust involved in her long years of control" in the peninsula. It is certain that England's withdrawal would be followed almost- instantly by a partition of India amongst the great Powers, both of Europe and Asia. France would spring upon Burmah and Eastern Bengal, Russia upon the Northern Provinces, Germany upon Bombay, and it 6 back country and China through Nepaul upon Bengal proper. This is a prospect which is ignored by the educated leaders of the present disaffection, the " respectable people"' to whom the Government of Bengal specially refers in its bitterness at their exclusion from the greatest- and most lucrative positions in their own land. Fortunately this class is in a hopeless minority among the native population, and it has no military force at- its command, but its agitators are sedulously endeavouring to excite the masses of the people by .pouring out torrents of calumny and to incite the native troops to open insurrection. The Government of Bengal points out the serious possibilities if they succeed in this attempt to inflame the lower and more numerous orders, while the Lieutenant-Governor emphasises the' necessity for putting a curb updh the tongues and pens of those who are doing their best to bring constituted authority into contempt. A British community like our own does not take kindly to suggestions which savour of the methods of Russia, but- ib would be folly to deny to the Government on the spot the opportunity of having a better informed judgment upon the situation and its requirements than can be framed from tlieory at this distance.