12 MAY 1923, Page 11

For long centuries the peoples of India possessed a civilization

even more ancient than our own, and India had a wonderful geographical position at the top of the Indian Ocean, half-way between Africa and Australia. Yet what claim has India to a share of the " brown man's burden " ? Have her sons, through the centuries, over and above carrying on their vocations as traders, done much to explore the vast unknown territories to which she was much closer than the British or to bring to these lands the benefits of ordered govern- ment, of roads, of sanitation and of all that we imply by civilization ? If not—and the answer must surely be in the negative—have her peoples acquired the right to equality of status with their white fellow-subjects outside India ?