[To rae EDITOR OP THE " SPKTATOR."] Sut,—It was a
pleasure to read your correspondent's sane comments, under this heading, in your issue of August 6th. It is a subject of which English readers are hearing far toe little just now. The truth about India needs telling every whit as urgently as the truth about Ireland, and it is even harder to come at. The few who try to tell it are, as usual, labelled "alarmists," but those of us who know the country and realize what is at stake care nothing for that. Can any thoughtful English man or woman read without grave mis- givings the following items of recent news from various localities?
Mob violence is reported to be on the increase in many parts of the country. In North Behar British residents go armed in self-defence, and if obliged to leave home for even one night they take their wives and children with them. I have heard that some Englishmen in lonely districts have sent their wives and children to native States, feeling they will be safer there than in British India! For the Indian princes have the good sense to'deport extremists. These " gentlemen," if caught in native territory, are promptly removed by the police. In Eastern Bengal Europeans often cannot get food unless it is sent from Calcutta. Their servants refuse to work, and carry complaints to local seditionists about their sahibs, who are fined—save the mark !—by these precious upstarts, and can get no one to serve them till the fine has been paid. More: police officers and others are on occasion penalized by the authorities for doing their simple duty. In one case a district officer caught a spy in the very act of stealing important papers con- nected with a murder trial. Will it be believed that he received orders to release the said spy and apologize to him in open Court?
Your correspondent truly says: "This vast silent majority [of Indians] will always be on the side of the British so long as they really govern . . . and safeguard life and property." How is it possible for Englishmen in India, even the most devoted, either to govern Indians or safeguard them from their own wilder elements with this kind of thing on the increase, as undeniably it is, with a pardoned agitator frankly seducing the Indian Army and students of Indian colleges, declaring: "We are at war with you. We have not yet drawn the sword, but that is coming. We intend to drive you English out of India "? Is India—the real India—being safe- guarded and governed by this mode of procedure, or is it being insidiously betrayed?—I am, Sir, &c., AN ENGLISHWOMAN.
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