The New York herald., 1921-09-04

ABOUT the River LyS ana the 4 ieffliSu
towns where the Indian troops were
billeted. To the French villagers, who
have no sense of any color prejudice,
these dark. soft eyed men with gentle
manners and chivalrous ways seemed
like fairy book figures. romantic and
sympathetic. Were they not fighting
for France and dying for France? /
saw many of them dying and saw
their comrades shivering and miserable
In water logged Flemish trenches in
winter thought then, and think now.
that. in spite of our great need for
regular trained soldiers in those early
days before our new armies were ready,
1t was a mistake 10 bring those Indian
troops to France.
The climate was against them and
their way of fighting did not fit them
to stand in bitches under modern gun
fire. but apart from that every man
who wrote home or went home helped
to lower British prestige in India They
saw the early phase of the war, when
the Germans outnumbered us in men
and guns and seemed to be winning
on many fronts and were inflicting
upon us enormous casualties because
of the superiority of their artillery
and ammunition. II was a shock to
the Indian soldiers, who believed in
the invincibility of the British army
White prestige was lowered because
white women were too friendly and
romantic toward these Indians and be-
cause this mutual massacre of white
and Christian races seemed to many
intelligent Indians to be ghastly in
might profit according to the wisdom
of Allah. / saw extracts from many
Indian letters in which such ideas
were expressed openly or in allegory.
Long service, illness wounds. the
inevitable hardships of war, long exile
and the stirring of ideas and emotions
made some of these men agents of re-
VOLT and in thousands of secret ways
the Far East, which has been called
uIchanging, has changed in spirit be-
cause of that great European conflict.
Yet they are only ignorant souls or
fanatics who talk Of India as people
claiming elf-government on Western
lines.
Ghandi who has organized wide
spread boycott against British goods,
used such words as nationalism. home
rule and liberty, but in his brain. as
in other Indian brains. they have
totally different meanings from what
the Western ideas are. Amiable and
liberal souls in England. ignorant of
the East, proclaim Ghandi as a kind
Of liberal statesman like Gladstone.
but that is not how he is regarded
by Indian peasants. To them he is a
miracle worker. Many believe he can
cause rain to fall on parched fields
and can raise spirits from deen wells.
They have been told so by the holy
fakrs.
He himself upholds the caste sys-
tenn, although for time he tried to
avert it, and in India caste is so
strange that a man is polluted by the
shadow of man of another caste
falling across his food so strange
that there cannot be intermarriage
between one caste and another; so
strange that every trade and occupa-
ton from street sweeper upward has
a definite status of caste, from which
there is no escape in life and which
is inherited. Western liberty cannot
exist with the cast system nor among.
races that worship gods and fear
devils according to the Hindu faith.
Religious Hatred Rampant.
Again, there are many races in India
filed with religious hatred for one an
other. Only the rule of dominant
race keeps India safe from continual
bloodshed and anarchy. In it's history
there have been many dominant races.
but not until the British came did
India get peace and justice as fair to
the peasant as to the prince and an
administration which In spite of all
human faults has made good roads,
watered great deserts and has brought
health and security to vast popula-
tion Our India civil service was a
great school of administration and
produced fine types of men who did
big jobs without fame or much re-
ward. efficiently and devotedly, as a
kind of vocation. I think they were
our best type in many ways, and one
cause of the trouble in India to-day is
the replacement of Indian civil SER
wants. who knew the people and their