THE INDIAN DANGER [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sta,—The British Press and public are very ignorant of the facts, and need to have it clearly explained that the root facts of the very dangerous situation are :-
1. That the Indian politicians are demanding " complete inde- pendence and severance of the British connexions."
2. That the Indian " unrest," so far as it is caused by anti- British feelings, exists solely amongst the politicians, negligible in numbers and influence, and is not shared in by the Indian masses who value highly the peace and security British rule enforces.
3. It is also an essential fact that government on a democratic basis is inconceivable in India, because, not only are any feelings of equality and fraternity unknown in the country, but they are diametrically opposed to the whole social complex.
4. That the religious hatreds and animosities, bred in the bone for generations, which cause sanguinary riots almost daily, are in India ineradicable, because religion means there a fanaticism, blind and deaf to reason.
5. The chief " reference " to the Simon Commission requires it to decide from the last ten years' experience of limited self-govern- ment whether an advance of powers is justified, as allowable to the representative Assemblies, or whether a restriction is called for.
The answer to this, if facts have been freely and fully placed before the Commission, must be that owing to the long list of perverse and childish " motions and " resolutions " passed by these Assemblies and Councils, which the Govern- ment has had to ignore, or veto, no such advance of powers is justifiable.
It follows that British rule is still necessary in India to preserve the country from anarchy and chaos, and it is only necessary to make an authoritative statement that in the interests of the Indians themselves the British mean to stay till self-government becomes possible, to settle the whole hullabaloo of the politicians, and immensely to relieve the fears of the masses.—I am, Sir, &c., F. H. B.
[N.B.—This letter has been shortened for reasons of space.--
En. Spectator.]
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