INDIAN CRISIS INEVITABLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16684, 16 March 1922, Page 2

INDIAN CRISIS INEVITABLE.

REVIEW OF THE PRINCE’S TOUR. " NOT A FAILURE.” By Teleera-ph—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. DELHI, March 14. A special Press representative, with the Prince oi W ales, reviewing the tour and the present position of affairs, says: ‘‘The arrest of Gandhi and the resignation of Mr Montagu overshadowed the closing scenes of the Prince’s visit. In official circles, civil and military, the hope has again arisen that the Government has at last determined on a firm policy ot suppression of rebellion, the protection of loyal Indians and the sweeping away of the atmosphere of su.«*picion and uncertainty poisoning all services." The writer goes on to say that he hears on all sides such expressions us: '* Wo are in for an explosion when the Prince leaves. ns get it over and clear tho air and end the uncertainty which is paralysing all official and commercial India.*’ CRISIS INEVITABLE He declares a crisis is inevitable and urges the need of dealing firmly with the Gandhist agitation. He declares the Prince's tour lias not in fluenced the political situation one way or the other and it would be idle to assert that the influence of the Prince’s personality has been felt by the majority of the people. He has seen little or nothing of thp bulk of the natives, the precautionary measures for Ins safety preventing free intercourse with them. It would be a mistake to think he had won a single convert from the Gandhist movement. The correspondent points out that the passage through the British-govern-ed porton of the country was characterised by boycotts varying in extent and rioting in Bombay and Madras. 'Hie Prince acquitted himself in a delicate and difficult task with his characteristic tact and made the right impression on the native rulersTOUR NOT A FAILURE. It had been suggested that if he had been permitted to go openly through the bazaars, even during the hartals, it would have caused a reaction of feeling in his favour on the part of the impressionable natives who wourcr no claim him as a popular hero, but the writer was unable to say how far this surmise would have been justified by events. The tour, however, bad in no Kpn been a failure and the correspondent cannot see how. under the circumstances, it could have been a greater success. FIRST HALF OF THE TOUR, Ail interesting survey of the first half of the Prince of Wales's Indian tour was contributed to the London “ Daily Telegraph ’’ by Mr Perceval Landon in January. “ In point of importance, if not of time.” he wrote, “ one-half of the Prince of Wales's tour has now been completed- Five provincial capitals—lor tjie United Provinces boast of two and five Indian States'' have been visited. From one point of view, which one encounters at every turn—though, in the writer’s opinion, it is a serious misreading oi the real situation-- the Prince of Wales has already secured a great, and in the future will achieve an even greater, triumph over the seditious forces in India. It is n misreading, because never has the issue lain between these. It is true that, the Prince’s personal charm, combined with tho instinctive loyalty that hostile propaganda neither of five nor of fifty years can uproot, have unquestionably shaken to the core the attitude of sullen boycott advised, ordered, and wherever possible enforced, by Mr Gandhi and his colleagues. Calcutta, by common consent, was to have been the test. CRUCIAL TEST IN CALCUTTA. “Up to the Prince’s visit to the old capital of India the situation remained in doubt His travels through the territory of the native States bad been nothing short of a triumphal progress—and anyone who thinks that in these States the disruptive influences of Gandhism are unknown has misread, indeed, the recent history of the. Peninsula, for ‘Where the devil cannot go he will send.’ On the other hand, in British India there was no such clear evidence. The brilliant an«l enthusiastic reception at Bombay masked the serious trouble in the native quarters of the city. Lucknow proved its loyalty. But Allahabad, Benares and Patna betrayed the strength of the terrorist, and not impossibly bad faith among certain prominent men. to whose lip-loyalty credit in high Quarters had been too easily given. There remained Calcutta. No one who knows Calcutta could describe the condition of the streets at ~the time of the Prince’s arrival as anything but a disappointment. The occasion was, of course, an enthusiastic triumph in Dalhousie Square, and fair crowds were present near each end of the bridge and opposite the entrance- to Government House grounds, but by no standard could the scene be. regarded as creditable to Calcutta. But this frigidity broke down at once. That very afternoon the races began the process, and a night of illuminations saw the city in open and jo.vous-hearted mutiny against the

extremists- Mr Gandhi bad suffered a serious set-back in Bengal. “ But this, though the obvious and as I have said the almost universal standpoint, is on«e to be regretted. The fight now going on is between the executive and the rebels alone. Most unfairly the latter have dragged the Prince of Wales into the contest; nay, at one time it seemed possible that the executive would follow suit; but better counsels prevailed, and -the only conceivable aspect of the Prince's tour —that of the visit of the representative of a Sovereign and a principle above all politics—has been maintained. LOYALTY BREAKS THROUGH. “ Never for a moment has the Prince deviated from this clear conception of his purpose in visiting India, and of his status therein. Steadily, and with his own characteristic charm, be has done bis Imperial work. Never, bv even a hint, has he admitted that lie is affected by the ‘ malice domestic ' which is seething under India's surface to-day. His presence has silenced the open voice of sedition, though in places it has not been able to overcome tbe barrier which sedition has attempted to lay continually beside his path. Tie has scrupulously and with dignity maintained bis aloofness from all political issues. There is no reason why bis reception during the latter part of his visit to Calcutta, should make, one iota of difference in his attitude for the rest of the tour, and T am confident that it will make none. He lias always assumed—and rightly assumed—that ihe hearts of the mass of Indians were with him. and whatever tbe extremists .may now decide to do, the Prince can do no other or better than be baa already done. “ The Prince can but go on as he has begun. The crucial test of terrorism began in Calcutta, when the tide of iovalty broke through the dams that Air Gandhi had constructed. It is to the Prince that the credit for this triumph of liberty is to be given, but it would be a cardinal mistake to represent that success as in any way involving bis personal interference in Indian politics.” FEELING IN SOUTH AFRICA, CAPE TOWN. March 14. An Indian Congress at Durban attempted to enforce a hartal as a mark of «*vmpath.v in connection with GandUL •< crest. Store* '<er- cb— d in some Indian quarters but the Indian workers generally ignored the ordt j»