SUPPRESSED INDIAN NEWS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sre,—In connexion with the subject of Indian constitutional reform, I should like to draw attention to the very recent Hindu-Mohammedan riots at Agra, information about which has apparently been suppressed " according to plan." It is definitely stated that these sectarian riots, which were so serious as to require the presence at Agra of the Lieutenant- Governor, the Cltief Secretary, and various "political leaders," were occasioned "by the methods employed by the rival parties in connexion with the elections to the now Council." Anyone who has lived in India and had any experience of elections to the Morley-Minto Councils knows the character of the methods employed by candidates for election. Under the new constitu- tion these methods are likely to be intensified, as, indeed, they appear to have been at Agra within the last few weeks. The much-vaunted Hindu-Moslem unity has disappeared at the first touch of Mr. Montagu'a unifying franchise, and the use of the ballot-box, which was considered likely to " soften the asperities of the caste-system," has apparently succeeded so far in aggravating the fundamental mutual hostility of Rare and Robins. It is perhaps needless to inquire why information of these latest riots has been withheld from the public in
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