Mr. Keir Hardie, accompanied by Mr. J. Chowdhury, a Bengali
barrister and leader of the Swadeshi movement, is travelling in Eastern Bengal, and, according to Reuter, has been using the most improper and inflammatory language. The programme of his tour is published by the Bengali papers, and crowds await him at railway stations, which are decorated for the occasion. If the Bengali papers may be believed, Mr. Keir Hardie has declared that the state of Eastern Bengal is worse than that of Russia, and that if the atrocities com- mitted by officials were known they would cause more horror in Britain than the Turkish outrages in Armenia. He is reported also to have said that his own political party was not insignificant at home, and that it would not tolerate such scandals. It matters very little whether Mr. Hardie's exact words are being recorded or not in the Bengali papers. We are quite prepared to believe that they have been exaggerated. The essential fact is that his action is
increasing the unrest and greatly adding to the difficulties of governing India, and while of course he knows that this is the result, he deliberately lends himself to it. For this purpose he has chosen the most easily disturbed of all the districts in India. Mr. Hardie's mental ability to solve the problems of Indian government may be .measured by the foolish generali- sation attributed to him, that India must have self-govern- ment, as " what was good for the Canadians must be good for the Indians." In this context we may note that Mr. Victor Grayson, M.P., has been gaining fresh notoriety by a violent attack on Lord Cromer. The opponents of Socialism can wish nothing better than that Mr. Grayson should speak as often as possible.
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