Sept. 8.
Inpiay affairs are vastly interesting when the opportunity offers to geta clear view, to get to the heart of things past all the initial intricacies tending to obscute any plain understanding of them. To us in China. unfortunately, that chance does not too often occur, and being, as it were, out of ow direct line of sight, which looks past Ceylon straight to Suez, Indian affairs receive probably too little attention from us. This is unfortunate, for when telegrams arrive such as those of the past few days dealing with outbursts of religious fanaticism, we can only realize an ominous situation vaguely. In the present case we See opposing sects in the land engaged in a blood feud, asserting their different religions at the very point of the sword. For us to deal in detail with all the elements now in operation which, unchecked, would lead to complete anarchy, would be too long a task, but there is one very interesting part of it which is capable of statement with at least some brevity. This is the recently reported outbreak of the Akali Sikhs who only a week ago set to seizing private property attached to a Sikh shrine at Amvitsar. When the attempted seizure occurred, it may be remembered, the head priest complained to the authorities, and to the number of about two hundred the offenders were arrested. This action was immediately the signal for a second attempt to lay violent hands on the property in question, and on this occasion the situation demanded that several of the local notables should likewise be placed in detention. Still further measures were required, for the rapidly spreading news of the event attracted Akalis from all parts of the district towards Amritsar, and we may take it that but for the prompt action of the authorities in detaining these men in their own districts, there would have been such an assembiage of armed warriors at Amritsar that military operations on avery large scale would have been required to cope with them.
This attempted seizure of property at Amritsar merely happens to be the latest of a long series of events arising out of a deep-rooted feud between two sections of the Sikhs. Its origin as to be traced far back in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.