The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-23

| fore the war. In 1918 and 1914 n Ger,
! man viewing the situation in India with
| patriotic anti British eyes would have
observed the following phenomena A
rapprochement between section OF In.
dian Mohammedans and the Young Turk
| party in Europe: an anarchial revoln.
tionary movement in Bengal with some
notifications in the north OF India: q
/ latent movement of extreme nationalism
! in the Bombay Presidency and some
other places; an unrestrained 'Ghadr
movement among Indians In the United
States and Canada, and certain amount
of Moslem dissatisfaction in the north
| of India and along the northwest from
| tier. | think II was beyond the power Of
any German to decide whether these phe-
nomena were the signs Of deep and
widespread unrest or merely local sur
face disturbances and l feel sure that in
order to interpret them the Germans
consulted exiled and partisan Indians
who were out Of touch with India as a
whole and who therefore magnifed their
own views and feelings and those Of
their friends and associates out of all
reasonable proportion.
"For the first few months of the war
the Germans waited for the Indian storm
to come of itself as they had been led to
believe that it would come. To begin
with, our enemies based extrayagant
hopes on Turkeys intervention, but the
Indian Mohammedans as a whole took
this with extraordinary calm and resg-
nation. Then came the FGhadr' invasion
from the United States, Canada and the
far East, but that broke itself hopelessly
on the good sense and feeling of the
Puniab public and on the resourceful ad-
ministration of that province.
Disappointed by these failures of the
Indian trouble to arrive automatically,
the Germans realized that they must at
tempt direct assistance and turned their
attention to the Bengal revolutionary
party. After six months or so of the
war the Germans had established regu-
lar bureau of disaffected Indians in Ger.
many itself, among whom were included
some leading members of most of the dis
turbing movements already mentioned.
Under their advice grandiose schemes
were evolved for the supply of arms,
ammunition, money and even German
soldiers and sailors to the revolutionaries
in Bengal and to the disafTected Moslem
fanatics in the north of India.
"The schemes all miscarried hopeless
ly; remittances had a way of getting in
tereepted by the wrong people; ships on
secret German errands kept knocking up
against the allied warships, and last, but
perhaps not least most of the moves in
the plots were promptly reported to us
all along by our own agents. These
plots are still continuing, but there is
little sting in them and am afraid the
Germans themselves do not believe in
them very strongly.
Il should like to be able 10 say that
the Illustration of the plots has been due
to the Indian police and to the branch Of 4
that service under me but | gladly admit 1
that it has been chiefly due to the sanity |
Of the great Indian public. which has !
its support. Plots and conspir- |
scies are very severely handicapped when /
the public environment Is apathetic or 4
hostile to the oonspirator. At the mo |
meut we OF the secret service are feeling /
very comfortable but professionally we |
are disappointed with the German plots /
for India. We had hoped to learn a great /
lesl from their system and methods but /
they seem to us to have been clumsy. be- 1
lated. too Theoretical and based on a /
misunderstanding Of Indian character. I
AZ the same time I believe The British 4
empire owes q great debt 10 the Indian !
police in all its branches for It's unsweTv-
ing loyalty and zeal during the great
var