THE SITUATION IN INDIA.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sts,—What a perfect answer Mr. C. Poyntz Sanderson gave in his letter in your issue of August Gth to the Indian agitators who claim that India is still ruled by the sword—" It is our primary duty in India to preserve order. At the present moment English adminis- trators are going about dealing out justice and equality and solving problems in administration in circumstances which it is difficult in this country to imagine. Each week a perusal of the Indian papers shows assaults on officials, rioting against civilians and threats to property, and behind it all the cry of "Turn out the English." Mr. Gandhi, the so-called pacifist leader, has instituted methods which he believes will lead ultimately to the withdrawal of the English from India, and his methods are these: "If we make administration difficult, if we make the continuance of business by the English unpractic- able, and if we make their residence in India impossible, then we shall achieve the end we desire." He has a following, a number of lieutenants who have failed to earn a living at the Bar, or who have preferred a literary education to a technical one and found the market for their brains overstocked, and these men wander among the coolie, the labourer, and the culti- vator. By specious arguments and subtle misstatements they instal into these men's minds a sense of injury and a sense of grievance of which previously they had not been aware, and which, when they have time to think, they know is non-existent. But the passions of mobs are easily aroused. Burn, kill, and
destroy are cries that are so easily obeyed, and then, when the white man does his duty and protects the community, he is at once marked down for vilification and even assassination. .A little more strength in the politicians at home and a little more intelligence in summing up the value of the agitation would work wonders, but it seems rather that Mr. Montagu has little faith in his countrymen in India, though only a few months ago the Indians in one district asked that the Indian collector should be transferred and a European put in his place.—I am, Sir, &c., G. RICHARDS 76 St. John's Road, Isleworth.
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