Rule, Riots & Rain

Nearly 2,000 people were injured, more than 200 killed in India last week as a result of fierce riots in the north (Peshawar), east (Rangoon and Dacca), west (Bombay), and in the centre (Lucknow).

"Self-Government." Always somewhat emotional, Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald said last week apropos of India:

"There must be no deflection from the goal of self-government! The British Empire can only survive the fate of its predecessors, which crashed inevitably as the circumstances which created them passed away, if it can adapt itself to the new needs of an ever-changing world."

What this actually meant appeared when Secretary for India Wedgewood Benn told the House of Commons that the Cabinet was not attempting conciliation with St. Gandhi or other leaders of the Indian struggle for self-government.

"We must wait for the restoration of normal conditions," said Captain Benn squaring his jaw. He also asked for an appropriation of $650,000 for the India office.

"Sheer Force." The Federation of Indian chambers of commerce manifestoed last week to the viceroy: "There is no hope for collapse of the movement inaugurated more than two months ago by Mahatma Gandhi. . . . Two courses are open: either rule by sheer force or conciliate." The Federation recommended conciliation. But Baron Irwin from his viceregal lodge at Simla replied by issuing two new edicts: 1) making even "peaceful picketing" a crime; 2) giving those who exhort people not to pay taxes as hard punishment as those who do not pay.

40,000. Gandhimen to the number of 40,000 advanced last week on the largest British salt reserve (at Wadala near Bombay), defended by 250 native police, 28 British sergeants. Correspondent Webb Miller of United Press was allowed to cable that he saw police break their staves upon the unresisting bodies of the Gandhimen. The 40,000 gradually engulfed the police, seized much of the salt, departed.

Not thus peaceful was the rioting in Rangoon between Burmese and Indian workers (the latter Mohammedan) over a local issue unrelated to St. Gandhi's movement. The fact that British police fired on and killed Rangoon Mohammedans, however, inflamed other Mohammedans, and soon 5,000 of the faith were rioting furiously in support of St. Gandhi at Bombay.

Rain. Next day all over India driblets of rain began to fall. More than simply the beginning of the torrential monsoon season, the showers signalized the entry of St. Gandhi's campaign into its second. more serious phase, that of nonpayment of taxes. With the monsoons, salt marshes become morasses of mud and slime, inaccessible alike to the Briton and to the Gandhiman.

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