Arizona republican., 1917-02-06
GERMANY TRIES
To MAKE INDIA
START REVOLT
Republican A. p. Leased Wirel

SIMLA, India, Feb. 5.-From a time
early in the war right up to the pres
ent moment, Germany has never
ceased attempts to stir the Indian
empire. to revolt, according TO SiI
Charles Cleveland, director of criminal
intelligence in this country, who made
this statement to a correspondent of
the Associated Press. Sir Charles
characterized the plots as clumsy. be-
lated too theoretical, and based on a
misunderstanding of Indian character,
and declared that the scheme failed
chiefly because of The sanity of the
great Indian public which has with
held its support"
Sir Charles is reputed to know more
about those in whom the secret service
naturally would be interested than any
other man in India For years he has
made study of that class which
favors the darkness of night for its
comings and its goings, and now as
head of the secret service, the govern
ment relies unon him to check unto
ward occurrences in any section be
| fore they have grown into a serious
menace.
There has been some trouble IN
India. said Sir Charles, but it has
fallen very far short both OF the pic
ture drawn in enemy publications and
of the enemy's desire. The state of
India all through the war seems to
have exposed a very big miscalculation
on the part of the Germans.
1t would be interesting to examine
how far this miscalculation was due
to misunderstanding of normal In
dian affairs and how far to a mis-
carriage of plans for causing trouble
in India and among Indians outside
. India during the war My own i'm
preston is that Germany thought
India would need very little eXtrane-
Gus prompting and assistance to rise
! against the British if the latter were
in serious embarrassment owing to Il
big continental war, and that therefore
not very much attention was paid by
the German government to instga-
ton IN India before the war. Where
and how did the German government
get that idea Was ii conveyed to
them by secret unknown agents or by
their consular officers in India or by
some over confident Indian Extremist
or by British panic mongers? 1t is
difficult to say for certain but | re-
member that some years ago an In
dian extremist leader used the follow
ing words to me:
We shall certainly Try TO embar
rass you actively in India if you have
with Afghanistan. our feelings are
firm on that point unless. indeed self
/ interest or some special reason die
tates a passive attitude to some or all
Of Is Bat never again will YOU find
such positive assistance as we gave
you at the time Of the Boer War
My extremist friend went on to
tell me that we were foolish to think
we could count on the Indian army
At the time | thought my friends at
tiiude was pathetic in It's self delusion
and time has shown that was right
After the war broke out the Ger
man government showed a willingness
to spend money laYishly on Indian
trouble but there was no sign of ii
nancing' Of troublesome schemes or in
dividuals before the war. In 1913 and
1911 a German viewing the situation
in India with patriotic anti British
eyes would have observed tie follow
ing phenomena. A rapproachment be-
tween a section Of Indian MOhamedans
and the Young Turk party in Europe:
an anarchical rev olutlonary mOvemen;
III Bengal with some ramifications IL
the north OF India: a 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, ard certain amount of Mos
len dissatisfaction in the north oi
India and along the north west from
! tier. | think il was beYOnd the power
Of any German to decide whether
these phenomena were the signs of q
deep and widespread unrest or merely
! local surface disturbances and | fee
sure that in order to interpret then
! the Germans consulted exiled and par
nf
/ with India rs a whole and who there
! fore magniIied their own views ant
/ feelings and those OF their friends ana
/ associates out Of Oh reasonable pro-
/ portion.
! For the first few months Of the wal
j the Germans waited for the Indian
( gtorm to come Of itself as they haC
been led to believe thai it would com,
+ To begin with our enemies based eX-
/ travagant hopes on Turkeys interven-
. ticn, but the Indian Mohamedans as
whole took this with extraordinar,
1 calm and resignation. Then came tn
/ 'Ghadr' invasion from the Unitet
States. Canada and The far east, bu
; that broke itself hopelessly on tn
good sense and feeling Of the Punjal
public and on the resourceful ad
TniniSfratiun of that province.
disappointed by these failures o
the Indian trouble ito arrive auto
Inatic;tlly thc Germans realized tina
they must attempt direct dssistanc
and turned their attention to the Ben
gal revolutionary party. After 81
months or so Of the war the German
had established regular bureau o
: disaffected Indians in Germany itscl
{ among whom were included som
leading members Of most Of the dis
n hsr ff.,1
i Under their advice grandiose scheme
were evolved Tor tine supply of arm.
ammunition, money and even Germa
soldiers and sailors 20 the revolution
aries in Pengal and to the disaffecte
: Moslem fanatics in the north Q
! India.
The schemes all miscarried hope