Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-15
ARTICLE X.
BY UPTON CLOSE.

India is a melting pot of nations,
filled to the brim with the seethlng
broth of revolt. British officers and
civilians clubs are today little citadels
with stored-up provisions guarded by
machine guns. While the British
look on in pretended detached superb
GRITTY at the Indian parties, contending
among themselves for the newly ere
ated electorate. they do not disguise
their real apprehensions over the fact
that every one of these parties has as
it's ultimate aim election of the British.
Regulations all over India, not spoken
Of publicly, but enforced rigidly in pri-
vate, forbid officers wives and other
British women TO stray more than 10
minutes distance from the post.
1 journeyed through India from
Rangoon to the Baluchistan border. !
visited the headquarters of the parties
at Allahabad. l watched an election
in swarming Calcutta. I visited the
session of the Council of Princes, Eng
lands gilded upper chamber at Delhi
for the millionaire princes, and traV-
eled along the famed border among
the hillmen of the north.
From Burma to Persia I caught the
rumble of an approaching storm. Al
most every Englishman you meet can
didly admits the British are preparing
to get out of India, yet every action
of the irresponsible Indian govern
ment betokens that it is not so easy
10 demobiliZe this immense experiment
in alien government without making
added and feverish efforts to stay.
Show Sympathy With Chinese.
The Swaraj party gained at the re
cent elections, which means that de
termined nationalism, if for the mo-
ment non-violent, has become the or
der of the day throughout India. The
country has begun to think and act
like an Independent nation. The In
dian Nationalist Congress passed a
resolution of support for the Chinese
nationalist movement. 1t has recently
protested threateningly against the
dispatch of British troops to China.
Russians, as you find everywhere,
are insinuating this common-destiny
idea into the minds of the great Ash
aStic nationalist Movements most
portentous threat for the future. They
are also provoking a more disquieting
cooperation" on the Afghan border
where, it was believed on every hand
while / was in India, an extensive re-
currence of border raids will break out
this Spring, which may necessitate an
other punitive expedition against AT
ghanistan. The greatest mobilization
of tanks in history waits on the
border, reinforced by airplanes, while
Afghanistan replies by creating an air
force through Russian assistance.
So grave is the problem of holding
India becoming that at the present
time a very strong school of thought
has grown up in the British com
munity in favor of setting the rest of
the Indian empire adrift, save a few of
the valuable smaller states, and cling
ing only to Burma. There is much
FEASIBILITY in this idea. Out of every
100 rupees of taxes paid in Burma, rs
it is said, are spent in making up
deficits over the rest of India. From
Burma come tea, lead, tin, teak, oil
and the allurements of a vast general
trade, which is the cream of possessor-
ship in India. Burma produces 300,-
100000 gallons of refined gasoline, for
instance, per year, gradually increas
ing, with the aid of American extract
ing machinery OF the latest type.
Signs of Trouble i'm Burma.
The Burmese are totally different
from the rest of the Indians in racial
type-Mongoloid rather than Aryan.
IHey are IHOI0 OOClle, HluCIl less III
fected with the secession movement,
though this has spread and is spread
ing with what the British scornfully
call "Babu infection" from Bengal
across the shallow bay. found temple
restrictions in Burma, however, en-
forcing on the white man the obliga-
ton of taking off his socks as well as
his shoes and polluting his sacred
white skin with the unparticular tenn
pie floors. A host of such small signs
in Burma show that the rule of the
British carries no more the sacred
sanction of Kipling days.
The great Chinese communities of
Rangoon and Mandalay are also steady
factors In nationalist fermentation. So
in spite of the fact that home rule
seems to be an innocuous success in
Burma, and the chosen province is
already marked out for the last Brit
ish stronghold In India, yet it is at
best an unstable peace and in the end,
whichever way India goes, Burma will
follow.
India is moving toward democracy
as well as toward freedom, with the