New-York tribune., 1918-09-01

TN NGLAND means some time to
give home rule to India on the
0 basis of the Montagu recon-
mendations. What sovereignty
in India means, the elements entering
into it and the character of the people
who are ruled is made understandable in
this excerpt from "The Future of India"
by Sir John Foster Fraser, F.R.G.S., in
the September Century Magazine":
at is one of the romances of empire
building that little knucklebone of an ISL
and to the northwest of Europe should have
become ths possessor of India, the bright
est jewel in the English CROWN Lord
Beaconsfed once described it. Just about
the time Queen Elizabeth granted charter
to group of her subjects to start trading
in America, in a region called, after her,
Virginia, charter was given to English
merchants to trade with the Orient. That
was the beginning of mighty things. A
hundred and fifty years later wars between
England and France gave England pride Of
place in North America and in India.
English traders had no actual territory
in India, but when there the tragedy of
the Black Hole at Calcutta-146 English
men and women confined in cell sixteen
feet square, and only twenty-three of them
coming out alive-Clive, with force no
bigger than British battalion of to-day
a thousand men-administered punishment,
chose a new Viceroy of Bengal and started
the first real exercise of British power over
India.
"The continent at that time was under
the rule of three powers. There was the
Mogul dynasty, despotic and corrupt, sweat
ing the cultivators of the soil with exces-
sive and unrelenting taxation. The English
merchants insisted on making valuation
of the land, fixing the taxation and collect
ing the revenues. Reducing taxation was
the first blessing India received from Eng
lish control. So, as the corrupt and feeble
Mogul dynasty disappeared, it seemed to be
the natural thing that the English would
take over the administration. The English
did nothing to hinder the rule of native
princes; but they did resist any attempts by
foreign Mahometans to secure the land in
the Mogul territory.
"Then there were the old Hindu states,
inhabited by gentle people who had suf-
fered much from the warlke Mahometans.
The help of the British was welcomed, for
they gave protection and maintained the
princes. Indeed, among the most loyal up
holders of the British administration are
the chiefs of these native states.
"a third class of rulers in India are those
found in the Mahratta states, founded by
raiding hill tribes and the Sikh confederacy,
OF noo{o Had
for the strong arm of Great Britain it is
unquestonable that these invaders and fight
ing tribes would have made considerable
endeavors to become masters Of all the rest
of India. In the old days England's wars in
India were caused by resisting the aggres-
sions of the Mahratta and the Sikhs. The
latter were splendid soldiers. When the
time came to recognize British sovereignty
they were the most gallant fighters on the
side of England. At the time of the lam
entable Indian Mutiny they champoned
the British cause"
Call this goes to show that Great Britain
never conquered India, as the phrase is cur
rently understood but gradually inherited
and undertook increased responsibilities,
owing to the disturbed conditions of the
country caused by the rival ambitions of
native rulers and the warlike operations of
invading peoples.
"The broad, outstanding fact is that Great
Britain brought peace to several hundred
million people who for centuries had suf-
fered the evils Of constant war. Laws of
equity were established every here; not
British laws, but laws founded on native
custom and practice and administered in
local languages.