Dec. 15.
ONE of the most thorny problems the new Government in Great Britain has to tackle that of India. The aspirations of Indians for a larger share in the government of their own' country or even for its complete independence must be acknowledged to be legitimate. Indeed, it might be argued that these are a natural outcome of British methods of rule. The men who ave leading the agitation have been educated in British schools and some of them, like Mahatma Gandhi, have been trained in British Universities. India itself, the homogeneous India that we know, is a British creation, Before the pax Britannica was enforced India was a collection of petty states misruled by native tyrants and torn by internecine strife. In all her thousands of years of history she never had, and never aspired to have, the self-government which the Swarajists declare is dearer to them than life. As part of their campaign, these men, though trained in the learning of Europe, profess an antipathy to everything not native to the soil of India, Railways, telegraphs, machinery ete,, all belong to th materialistic" civilization of the West and should be either discarded or tolerated only until it is possible for India to return to her ancient civilization, "hear the legions thunder past and sink in dreams again.' Only garments made of native cloth should be worn and everything that is a product of foreign manufacture should be boycotted. But the very idea of government by the people and for the people ly as truly a foreign invention wireless telegraphy or the) steam engine. Why India should reject the "material" civilization of Western origin and homologate the ideas from which that civil zation springs is a question that could only be answered by an Oriental philosopher; it remains puzzle to the practical Western mind. Furthermore, it will take much argument to convince the world that men, whose notion of political economy seems to consist in an endeavour to turn topsy tury the process by which other] nations have attained to prosperity, are safe guides for an. illiterate people, just. emerging, into nascent self-consciousness.
If the aims professed by the leaders of the agitation in India are legitimate the methods they adopt to attain those aims are of the Shanghai presses which! purports to be a translation of! Romain Rolland's life of Gandhi. this Chinese version the British Government is held up scorn for "slaughtering" Indians, arresting them without cai and punishing them without re: son, A book of this kind mak: an appeal to those who know! little of Britain and less of India.
It has always been the experience of Chinese that the strong should' oppress the weak; why should it: be thought other than likely that Britain oppresses India?
Mr, Baldwin's choice of Lord Birkenhead to be Secretary of State for India seems to be al particularly happy one. He is! one of the most brilliant lawyers in England and a man of rare! courage and initiative. It is particularly. gratifying to read that his appointment has been received in India in a "not unfriendly manner." Everything we have done hitherto has been. regarded by the Indian agitators, as "unfriendly" but they recognize Lord Birkenhead as a strong man who knows his own mind and who can be counted on to say what he means and mean what he says and, even to an opponent, there is something gained when he knows that he will be treated with straightforward honesty: The task of carrying forward the. reforms already initiated and gradually transferring the larger share of the government of Ini service.to that of Indian administrators is one of great difficulty and complexity and it is being faced with both sympathy and courage by the Viceroy and his staff. In Lord Birkenhead they have a chief on whom they can rely for help and counsel in the troublous times. through which India is now passing and for a strenuous defence of their us when they are assailed by the tongue of slander.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.