THE FUTURE OF INDIA

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1607, 14 February 1925, Page 3

THE FUTURE OF INDIA

FEAR OF GROWING SOVIET

INFLUENCE

Lord Sydenham, speaking recently on “ British Achievements in India,” to members of the British Women’s Patriotic League in London, said that in response to the loud demands of a small section of Indians the present elaborate system of so -called democratic government, containing some elements which made it almost impossible to work, was installed in India. Less than one million people out of a population of three hundred and twenty millions elected the first Assembly, which was a mockery of government and democracy. This Government was maintained in power today by British military forces, and if these forces were removed it would crash to pieces. The classes which were producing the greatest agitators could never supply men of a type capable of governing India. These agitators made long speeches, but could not efficiently administer their own districts. “A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT.” The great services of India with their most valuable and experienced men had not been supported by the Government in the past as they should have been. The Indian Civil Service was literally withering away, and it was not at all certain that it could he fully restored to the position it had once held. This was the service that Mr Lloyd George had once called “ the steel frame of India.” This disintegration was going on in all the public services, and bribery and corruption were increasing. By far the saddest result of this dangerous experiment lay in the loss of many thousands of lives through rioting. Simple Indian villagers who had once welcomed and trusted British officers now looked on them suspiciously. The Bolsheviks were working strenuously and spending money freely to establish anarchy in India, and they constituted a factor 'which would have to be considered in the future. He believed the cause of the present trouble was the fact that we had forgotten that we were solely and fully respon-. sible for the welfare, decent order, and progress of the great masses of India. This task should have been put before that of placating a small section. If we were to lose India it would not only be a disaster to the people of India but we should never recover from the shock. India was indispensable to the British Empire.