Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-05

Ik2Y n A9l pie OF lnuld are ulSSoli7
lN NkRll tented with British rule
ll@ xxi All over this vast empire
ia WEl there is disturbed condi-
kakkaHNSA tion of affairs which has
come to be known as THE
Unrest" This unrest has found It's
expression in the serious and respect
full protests of leading Indian states
men, in the solemn resolutions of the
Indian national congress, In the boy
colt of English-made goods, in the pts-
| tolls of assassins and in the bombs and
| internal machines of Indian anarchists
The British government has met the
protests and demands of the sober In
dian public with important concessions
| looking toward self-goVernment, IN
what is known as Lord Morley's Re
form Scheme" 1t has met the vio-
lence of the extreme fanatics with stern
measures of repression.
| 1t is idle to deny the serious condi-
tion of affairs in India at the present
moment Hardly a week passes that
does not record bomb outrages and at
tempted assassinations. Every news
paper is filled with accounts of trials
of rioters and anarchists. Every day
the police search the houses of sus-
pected persons, finding and destroying
all books, journals, newspapers OF
taint of sedition.
The railway trains that run from Cal
cutta to Barrackpore, a suburb where
a great many prominent Englishmen
| have their homes, are guarded night
and day by lines of soldiers. Fifteen
| bombs have been exploded in trains
along this line since the unrest began
| Singularly enough, not one of the
bombs found its intended victim, al
Il
many injured.
Each outrage is followed by whole
sale arrests of suspected persons but
in the great majority of cases there is
no evidence whatever against the pris-
oners and they are liberated at the pre-
| liminary examining trial. Others are
taken before the higher courts, but II
is very difficult to obtain proof
against them, and the only convictions
of Importance. have followed upon the
| heels of proud and defiant confessions
1t is sometimes said that the unrest
is manifested only in the province oi
| Bengal, of which Calcutta is the capi.
| tai and metropolis. Yet ii is true thaI
within the last few weeks riots and
| bomb outrages have been reported
from the very southernmost portion oi
| the peninsula, searches and seizures
have occupied the time of the police II
every town in the Bombay presidency
at the west, the disturbances on the
| Afghan frontier at the north have be.
come so serious that the Khyber pass
| has been closed to commerce for ar
indfinite period. Bengal is the eastern
most section of India proper, so 1t is
evident that the unrest pervades India
| from coast to coast and from the noun.
tains to the cape.
/ q q Ton,
greater number of people in Benga
than in any other section of the coun.
try, and Bengal has a special griev-
ance on account of the partition of the
province by Lord Curzon in 1905. There
fore the Bengalese have been more
prominent in the revolutionary move
ment, and the situation is more serious
in their province. And this, in spite
| of the fact that Bengal, alone of al
the provinces of India, has no com
plant to make of the onerous take!
imposed by the British government.
1t is now crime for a Bengalese Il
sing mis- national anthem, "Bande
mataram," or "Motherland." To shou
the name of the song on the street.
means swift and sure imprisonment
The native newspapers are so watched
and hedged about that they hardly
| dare to express a positive opinion upor
!
preston and punishment for sedition
Public meetings and associations are
| strictly forbidden, and any attempt tC
hold one would be frustrated by the
vigilant police.
But the police are not equal to the
task of coping with a boycott that ex.
tends all over India. Clubs and unions
in every community and in almos
/ IdNrn La 4
support the "Swadeshi" movement
That means that they will buy M
goods, except "Swadeshi' goods-thost
manufactured in India by Indian labor
or grown on Indian farms by Indiar
farmers. Although a relatively small
percentage of the $50, ,000, 900 people Of
British India have Joined the move.
ment, 1t has grown to such an exten
that British trade with India ha.
suffered immensely. Thus the Indiar
patriots, for the first time, have the
support in parliament of the cottor
mills of Lancashire.
This boycott movement has not beer
confined strictly to the '"Swadeshi'
clubs, but has led to the discrimination
against British made wares of kind.
which India does not produce. German
trade in India increased 100 per cen
in volume in the ten years immediatelJ
| preceding the present era of unrest II
the last four or five years 1t has agair
doubled. With the feeling agains
| Germany so strong in England now
this fact is of tremendous Importance
The "Swaraj" movement is a genera
patriotic political agitation. "SwaraJ
is best translated by the phrase "India
for the Indians" The avowed purpose
of "Swaraj" is the unifcation of the
people of India, the cessation of the
|