TROUBLE IN INDIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17997, 16 April 1930, Page 5

TROUBLE IN INDIA.

SERIOUS RIOTING. ARREST OF NATIONAL LEADERS. TRAMCARS SET OX FIREUnited Press Assn.—Elec. Tel.—Copyright. DELHI, April 15. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, president of the Indian National Congress, and Sen Gupta, Mayor of Calcutta, were to-day sentenced to six months' imprisonment for violation of the salt laws and for reading in public extracts from seditious literature. Nehru, who will be treated as an ordinary political prisoner, lias appointed Gandhi to act as president of the Congress in his stead.

Savage rioting occurred in several parts of Calcutta to-day as a result of a "hartal” or day of protest, in connection with the arrests of Nehru and Sen Gupta. Two tramcars were set on fire and three others xvere wrecked. The fire brigade was stoned by a mob and several firemen were gravely injured. In the main thoroughfare of the city a crowd of rioters hurled stones at passing trams and 1 motor-cars driven by Europeans, also at the police, who were forced to open fire. The casualties are not yet known.

Auxiliary forces with armoured cars were called out and are now patrolling the streets, which were practically deserted at noon. In other parts of the city the traffic was held up by jeering crowds who dislocated the tram service by cutting the wires. GANDI’S CAMPAIGN. QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT. RUGBY, April 14. The Secretary of State for India, Mr Wedgwood Ben, was questioned in the House of Commons about the civil disobedience movement. He said it had been started by Gandhi, and developed generally along the lines anticipated. Broadly speaking the defiance of the salt laws had in itself not caused much trouble. Its real significance lay in the attempt to use It as a means of rousing public sentiment in India to a dangerous pitch. In one or two places public demonstrations bad resulted in clashes with the police. The Minister said he had every confidence that the steps taken by the Government of India would he adequate to deal with the situation as it might develop.