The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-04-12
Writer
Returns From India

Rangoon, April Ralph f. Hen
derson, an American writer and trav-
e!er, has returned here after spend
ing four months in visiting many
places in India to study the political
conditions. This is his third visit to
the Orient. Summing up his impress
sons of the Indian situation he said
to representative of The Associated
Press:
"The traveller must feel in his first
four ashore that the air is fairly
cracking with new element. In the
towns and cities the white man is no
longer tin god and even in the re-!
mote villages his divinity is fast slip
ing from him.
II was in Calcutta a week before
the Prince of Vale was due to land.
At that time our taxi was caught in a
traffic jam on one of the main thor
oughfares and held for Is minutes
while the packed stream of carts, bull
lock drawn, horse drawn, buffalo
drawn or man drawn, strained
through Ine crOWuou street.
"When the Prince landed at Cal
cutta, the streets We're as deserted as
those of a New England town on ain
old Puritan Sabbath. Calcutta shops
did no business. Mahatma Gandhi
had SO commanded.
"A few days later in Assam we
were in Gauhati, the capital of the
province. Government officials had
just raided the home of a wealthy
and influential citizen, found incrim-
eating literature and made an arrest.
There were rumors of proposed as
sault upon the court where the case
was being tried, but company of
British soldiers was marked into town
to guard it.
eve were talking with two students
in Cotton College, the government
college at Gauhati. The conversation
was naturally upon the subject now
uppermost in the minds of all Indians,
the political situation and Gandhi.
Non-co-operation they evidently ap-
proved. Gandhi they frankly admired
--revered almost Why? Because
they said, of his love for India, and
! his life of sternest asceticism and
self-sacrifice.
"We travelled south toward Mad
ras. Everywhere we saw the uniform
of the Gandhi volunteer the white
cap and the coat Of coarse homespun.
Some time ago these volunteer bands
were declared unlawful by the govern
ment.
"An Indian member of the munich
pal government of Delhi told us of the
curious reaction to this order in a
large town where his brother was a
civil Judge. The day following the
edct procession Of men in Gandhi
uniform marched to the courthouse
and demanded that, in accord with the
law, they be arrested.
'The judge knowing that there was
no provision for such a multitude of
prisoners. was at his wits end to
! know what to do. The volunteers
clamored for arrest. The Judge de-
clared that the uniforms constituted
no offence to law, and ordered the
police to confiscate the white caps and
coats. This done, the procession with
drew to take counsel
"The next day they returned with
cloth badges around their arms, de-
claring themselves volunteers in Of
fence of law, and demanding arrest.
The Judge confscated the cloth badges.
They returned on the morrow with
paper badges. These were stripped
off and the farce pctered out. Such
wholesale defiance of law recalls
Burke's words, you cannot indict d
whole nation
"The Gandhi uniform is now little
more than fashion. In Poona, the