MR. KEIR HARDIE AND THE "MADRAS TIMES."
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPROTATOR:] Six,—The Spectator is one of the few English papers which I see regularly, and in spite of the strong line that it takes on current social, economical, and religious questions it remains almost the only paper dealing with controversial subjects of this nature which endeavours to avoid the mis- representation of facts in support of its theories and to test its principles on the whetstone of truth. It forms, therefore, agreeable reading for those who, like myself, have shed their partisan spirit under a tropical sky, and view the disturbed maelstrom of social, religious, and political strife with the detachment of a Lucretius yet with the yearning of a patriot. Tt is for this reason that I turn to your columns when I seek to point out one of the many misrepresentations, based on a suppression of part of the truth, which masquerade as deliberate and considered criticism of the Government of India on the floor of the House of Commons.
. During the course of his speech in connexion with the Indian Budget on July 26th Mr. Keir Hardie is reported to have read some extracts from the Madras Times, an English newspaper published in Madras, extracts which contained an unreasoning attack on the " vacillating " policy of the Earl of Minto. The moral drawn by Mr. Keir Hardie was that, if the newspaper had been under Indian control, the Govern- ment would have immediately suppressed it. By his remarks he has doubtless misled thousands of those who are unaware of the truth, and though it is impossible at this distance of time to salve the wound left by his poisoned dart, there is no reason why he who inflicted the wound should not be countered by the cold steel of truth.
The language employed by the Madras Times can only be interpreted as a most unjustifiable attack on the policy and character of the Viceroy, and although it was obviously not directed towards the subversion of the British Government in India, there can be little doubt that it came within the scope of the Press Act. The policy of Government does not, however, aim at the immediate suppression of established newspapers as a punishment for a first offence. Their policy has been expressly declared to be one of admonition, to be followed by suppression if the warnings remain unheeded. In the present case, of which Mr. Keir Hardie made so much, the Government of Madras took early action, and warned the editor of the offending paper that a continuance of such language would lead to serious con- sequences. The Madras Times thereupon published an "Apologia," in reality an apology, and the Indian papers of Madras rejoiced with one accord over the humilia- tion of what they regard, with some justification, as an anti-Indian newspaper. In the Legislative Council the Government of Madras publicly announced that they had issued this warning to the Madras Times, and the proceedings were reported in the Government Gazette, and duly chronicled in the Press. As these events occurred over six months ago, and as the action taken by the Government of Madras was given wider publication than the article in the Madras Times, I cannot help feeling that Mr. Keir Hardie's effort to misrepresent the Government in the case Under reference—the sting lying in the suggestion of undue partiality to an English newspaper—forms but another instance of that garbling of facts to which those who are the silent target of incessant and hostile criticism take singular and particular exception.—I am, Sir, &c., Vex EX INDIA.
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