The disorder in Colombo, mainly directed against the Ceylonese police,
has subsided, but the trouble in Bombay has been more serious. The riots there in which 116 perSona have been killed and some 700 injured are an object lesson of what would happen if Hindus and Mohammedans were left to settle their own differences:. They: are only a pale reflection of the fires of religious hatred that would be revealed if the control of the Indian Police was diminished or withdrawn. No minority would be safe anywhere in India if the British left„._ and the minorities know it well. Bombay, like many great sea- ports, has its lawless elements. The new Governor, Sir Frederick Sykes, would do well to inquire whether_ the districts of his capital with evil associations and the slums near the docks could not be rehabilitated,, for, they breed discontent. Grant Road, for instance, with its houses of ill-fame, is notorious all over the East. The recent trouble has been grafted upon a trade dispute.; The mills and factories of Bombay are very differently conducted, as is natural,_from the British-owned Calcutta mills. Hindu strikers.were replaced by Pathan, against whOse practices wild stories_ were told. We cannot judge, yet who was most to blame, but, as the Under-Secretary fOr India told the House of Commons, there is no doubt. that communist agitators_ seized the chance of fomenting the disorder.
Previous page
