Letters to the Editor
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our "News of the Week paragraphs.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR.]
MR. GANDHI'S RELEASE
[To the Editor of THE SeEcrxroa.1 SIR,—It is very deplorable that both the Viceroy and the
Secretary of State have rejected all appeals that have been made by friends of the Government for the release of Mr. Gandhi, and of all those non-violent prisoners who belong
to the Right Wing of the Congress. There is overwhelming evidence in every Province that the vast majority of those
who belong to the Congress are now heartily sick of Civil Disobedience, and are now prepared to join the " Co-oper-
ators." What is the evidence ? Here it is. I will just give one instance from a thousand others. A few days ago
a leading Congress " Dictator " in Northern India, Mr. Metha lirishenchandra, issued to the Press an important statement. This Congressman was only recently released from prison, after serving a long term of imprisonment under the Ordinance.
I am giving a short extract of his statement, which was published in the Statesman of Calcutta :
"We asked for bread and we were promised buttered bread, but in reality we were given stones by the Congress. . . . Congress methods have brought ruin and desolation in thousands of homes. Congress Leaders had preached that Swaraj was near at hand, and that they were fighting to win bread for thousands of poor and unemployed people, but during many 3-ears of turmoil, neither poverty nor unemployment has been removed or reduced in any way by Congress : on the contrary they have been greatly increased. . . . In my opinion the Government have succeeded and the Congress have been cornered from all directions. Both Civil Disobedience and non-co-operation have failed completely as political weapons. . . . Pandit Malaviya should follow the late Mr. C. R. Des, and give a lead to the country and save it from ruin. Mr. Gandhi was broken by Mr. Das ten years ago, and Congress was saved. . . . I fear that revolt will soon break out in Congress ranks, since all those who are now in prison are getting very disgusted, &c., &c."
Government should release all those Congressmen who hold moderate views, but it has pigheadedly turned a deaf ear to all the appeals of the Liberals on the absurd
ground that "Mr. Gandhi refuses to sign a written guarantee that he has forsaken Civil Disobedience." Mr. Gandhi is quite happy, as the Statesman points out, "conducting his
anti-touchabllity campaign from his prison in Poona." He has convulsed Hinduism and thereby has lost 90 per cent. of his flock. By keeping him in prison, Government are in fact giving him protection from the fury of his old friends.
Can sheer ineptitude go further ?—I am, Sir, &e.,
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