TRIBES RISE IN ARMS ON NORTH- WEST FRONTIER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 368, 9 March 1932, Page 1

TRIBES RISE IN ARMS ON NORTH - WEST FRONTIER.

Stern Measures Needed to Prevent Serious Rebellion. (United Press Association.—By Electric* Telegraph Copyright.) (Received March 9, 9.10 a.m.) DELHI, March 8. Serious trouble is brewing on the North-West frontier, where notorious firebrands, who are in close touch With Congress, are inciting turbulent tribesmen to open rebellion against the British Government. Several thousand fanatics and armed tribesmen have already entered the Mohmand territory, twelve miles from the Indian administrative border, and threaten to sever communications with remote frontier posts in Chitral. British aeroplanes have been fired at and a postponement of strong measures may result in a widespread con--Ragration. I here are similar hostile activities in the Peshawar district, where disaffected tribesmen have been warned by leaflets dropped from aeroplanes that unless they immediately disperse their villages will be bombed and the leading agitators removed.

An official statement issued in January by the Government of India said: “In the North-West Frontier Province a movement aiming at complete independence is in being, which seriously endangers peace and order and gravely imperils the defences of the very gates of India at the most critical point. “ Its leaders are endeavouring to embroil the unstable and warlike tribes of the frontier. “ Congress has set itself to enforce

its claim by open instigation of the people of India to break the law and resist its operation. The end in view is to bring government in India to a standstill. “ The history of previous movements of the kind shows that outbursts of violence which spare no class or creed are an inevitable consequence of such teaching. “ The Government will carry out without hesitation their responsibilities for order in India.”