India in Revolt FAMINE AND MILITARISTIC TERRORISM FORCE REVOLUTION By Ed. Gammons Your Mention of Martial Law Really Makes My Flesh Creep. Martial Law Is Only a Fine Name for the Suspension of All Law. It May Be Necessary for Anything, I Know, Some Day or Other, but Today It Would Be Neither More nor Less Than a Gigantic Advertisement of National Failure.’’ Letter from Lord Morley, then Sec- retary of State for India, to Lord Minto, then Viceroy of India, dated February 3, 1910. right 1917 by the Macmillan Co.) There seems to be practically no doubt of the exist- ence of a revolution in India. Bills, depriving an accused of the right of a trial by jury, of producing witnesses, of hiring legal defense, and legalizing torture, created a whirlwind of revolt. The Rowlatt Commission, which framed these bills, stated that the discontent throughout India necessitated these ultra-restrictive measures. The real cause, careful observers state, was their fear that ‘‘There will, especially in the Punjab, be a large number of disbanded soldiers, among whom ut may be possible to stir wp discontent.’’? These In- dian soldiers, like the soldiers of many other nations, were told that the winning of the war meant ‘‘world- wide democracy’? and the government very wisely thought that the sight of thirty-two millions of graves of Indians, who starved to death in ten months whilst ‘‘India’s exportation of cereals was maintained at an even higher level than in 1917-18 when she shipped abroad 5,400,000 tons,’’ according to the Lon- don Times, was a mighty poor demonstration of the working out of a benevolent democracy! The epi- demic of starvation suicides which recently occurred in India cannot be labeled discontent. ‘And the whole- sale exportation of grain at the same time cannot fail to excite thought—at least among the starving. The starving hundreds of millions of Indians are not and were not armed to the extent that they could take the field against Britain. According to the official figures of the British Government in 1917 there was one firearm to every ten square miles, to one man in every 1800 persons and: to every four villages or towns. The importation of arms is impossible. With British guns watching the passes in the north, naval guns covering’ the seaports, a ‘‘British sphere of influence’’ on one side (unfortunate Persia) and _ partitioned China on the other other, there is no access to any friend. India is hemmed in. The only possible revolution is a national strike. That is about what is oceurring. Hindu and Mahommedan are united and are staying united despite every trick and manceuvre of the com- mon enemy. For British provocateurs desecrate Hindu and Mahommedan temples of worship in efforts to embroil these once warring factions. We will now examine the workings of the courts- martial and ‘the identity of their victims. MARTIAL LAW BRUTALITIES The substitution of martial law for the common jurisprudence was an act of panic. The subsequent sentences and unprovoked massacres proved this. It was mass terrorism. It seemed as if the British Government considered that the Indian people had suffered the limit, that the disappearance of every hope of the amelioration of the country’s condition had driven home the fact that the continuance of British rule meant national extinction, and that only a display of ruthless force, with firing squads, aerial bombing and machine gun massacre, could avert a general revolu- tion. That policy is in full sway, but it has only intensified the discontent and, as Lord Morley pre- dicted nearly ten years ago, the drumhead court- martial is ‘‘neither more nor less than a gigantic advertisement of national failure.’’ In the Punjab the administration of martial law embraces everything. In Lahore everything comes within its purview. All the students of the local col- lege must report four times a day to Lieut.-Colonel Frank Johnson. Three local leaders were arrested and threatened with deportation for the offense of prepar- ing a telegram of protest to be sent to the Secretary of State for India.in England. The local military satraps even go into the business of price-fixing. This innova- MACHINE GUNS MOW The Amritsur massacre last April enraged all India. The British communique read: ‘‘This meeting was dispersed by a small foree of Indian troops. The casualties were heavy.’’ The casualties were indeed heavy. After the machine guns finished, 1600, out of the 6000 unarmed people attending the meeting, lay on the ground dead and wounded. On May 28th, Secre- tary of State Montagu reported in the House of Com- mons that disturbances in the Punjab resulted in the deaths of eight Europeans and four hundred Indians. These two British reports, one vague probably because of the heavy slaughter, and the other definite, are convincing proof that the Indians are not responsible for this saturnalia of blood and terror. It is difficult to get data on the number of all those killed by the British. Rada Krishna, an editor in the Punjab, was recently sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for VICTIMS FROM EVERY Religious and social reformers, captains of industry, bank managers, proprietors and editors of newspapers, college presidents and professors, barristers at law—. all of those are represented in the victims of the latest attack on India. In Gujranwala, the Punjab, last April twenty of the most prominent citizens, includ- ing six barristers, were marched in irons through the principal streets on their way to jail. Instead of minimizing the discontent, this public degradation of the best citizens of Gujranwala but incensed the popu- lace and the result was wholesale arrests. The most prominent victim of the imperialistic terror- ists in the Punjab was Lala Harkishan Lal, the leader of the constitutionalist party in that province for up- wards of twenty years, and familiarly referred to as the Indian Napoleon of Finance. He was active for many years in organizing native banks in opposition to British financial interests and became a marked man in consequence. He has been transported ‘for life to the Andaman Island penal colony for ‘‘ waging war against tion has a two-fold effect. It allays economic dis- content, occasioned by the exceedingly high prices, and it is fatal to the business of nationalist merchants, who participated in the satyagraha (passive resistance) pro- test against the enactment of the Rowlatt Bulls, there- by incurring the disapprobation of local officialdom. Young boys playing tip-cat on the streets drew sen- tences of seven years. They were considered drilling in order ‘‘to wage war against his Majesty the Em- peror of India’’ (George the Fifth of England). In Lyallpur the natives were commanded to descend from their elephants and all other modes of conveyances and salaam to ‘‘gazetted European or civil or military officers of His Majesty’s services.’’ This extraordinary order was issued by Lieut.-Colonel C. §S. Hodgson. One or more Indians were transported for life for the offense of burning the effigy of a government detective. Enraged natives beat an English woman school-teacher in Amritsur. Seven were hanged for it and one sen- tenced to life imprisonment. Men were whipped into insensibility in the streets of Lahore for the most trivial offenses. Accused persons were denied the right of choosing their counsel, even the nominated counsel were forbidden to take notes of the evidence and news- paper men were rigidly excluded. DOWN PROTESTANTS publishing native reports of the shooting down of demonstrators in Delhi by the British on Satyagraha Day, April 6th. The native press is so completely un- der the thumb of the government that it is practically impossible to get any news from it. Since the estab- lishment of martial law in the Punjab, 73 have been sentenced to death, 147 have received sentences of from ten years to hfe imprisonment, 204 have been sen- teneed to terms varying from six months to fourteen years, 20 papers have been suppressed and the public floggings have been innumerable. The details of the Amritsur massacre have been gleaned by lifting the corner of the curtain. What lies beyond is hidden by the censor. Imperialism after the war is the same as it was before the war, grasping, greedy, relentless and ruthless. It needs closed doors and censors to hide its cruelties and real character from a revolting world. GRADE OF SOCIETY His Majesty the Emperor of India,’’ and all his property declared forfeited. His offense was keep- ing shops closed in protest against the enactment of the Rowlatt Bills and feeding the poor who depended for provisions on the shops. Shankar Lal, secretary of the Delhi Home Rule League, an active newspaper editor and prominent leader of the Swadeshi industrial movement, has been arrested without warrant. Shankar Lal started many Swadeshi Co-Operative Stores, despite the warnings of government officials, and will doubtless pay the -price. Manohar Lal, during his term, carried off the highest honors in Cambridge University in economics. He is (or was) professor of Political Economy in the Univer- sity of Calcutta. He was seized without warrant and thrown into a cell, six feet by nine. His fate is unknown. Kali Nath Roy, editor of the Lahore Tribune, was sentenced to three years for telling the truth about the Rowlatt Bills and the way England machine-gunned Indian protestants. A vigorous agitation caused the reduction of the sentence to three months. Shahbaz Akhgar, editor of The Punjabi, is ordered ‘to abstain from sending or receiving personally or through a third party, by post or by telegraph, or by hand or by any other means, direct or indirect, any writ- ten communication, or other matter of lke nature, to or from any person, whether within India or without, until such communication shall have been seen by the Deputy Commissioner of this district.’’ Such are the terrible criminals of this least criminal country in the world and such is the freedom of the press under the British flag in this year of the new ‘“democracy.”’ If Prussianism means the murder of the unarmed, the coldly-caleulated starvation to death of inoffensive millions, the utter negation of democracy—then this military despotism has but moved from beneath the Black Eagles of Prussia to the royal standard of Great Britain. India, unarmed physically, but with high resolve and unflinching soul, will not submit. The blood of the starving peasantry cries out to the world that might is not, and never will be, right, and that a new generation, undeceived by the despoiling diplomacy of today, will set up new ideals and new standards of universal probity and peace. God speed that day! LORD MORLEY ON BRITISH TERRORISM IN INDIA Through the courtesy of the Macmillan Publishing Company of New York, we are enabled to reproduce from Lord Morley’s Recollections, copyright 1917 by the Macmillan Company, a few passages illustra- tive of British rule in India. Lord Morley was Sec- retary of State for India, 1905-1910, and keenly recog- nized his responsibilities. Cynical at times, he often revolted against the military terrorism practiced against an enslaved defenseless people. The first paragraph is Lord Morley’s estimate of the personnel of the Indian nationalist movement in 1905. The remaining paragraphs are culled from letters to Lord Minto, Viceroy of India during Lord Morley’s term as Secretary of State: ‘‘The danger arose from a mutiny, not of sepoys about greased cartridges, but of educated men armed with modern ideas supplied from the noblest arsenals and proudest trophies of English literature and English oratory.’’ Vol. 2, Page 154. ‘‘Shall I confess that I read one paragraph in your letter with a touch of mystification? It is where you say that you are in India, are face to face with risks that you ‘cannot express to people at home without being looked on as an alarmist.’ Not wise people; and as for foolish people, who cares?’’ Vol. 2, Page 199. Date, 1-18-07. ‘«Then is said to have sentenced some political offenders (so called) to be flogged. That, I am advised, is not authorised by the law, either as it stood, or as it will stand under flogging provisions as amended... . Here also I have called for the papers, and we shall see. said to me this morning, ‘You see the great execu- tive officers never like or trust lawyers.’ ‘I’ll tell you why,’ I said, ‘it is because they don’t like or trust law: they, in their hearts, believe before all else the virtues of will and arbitrary power.’ ’’ Vol. 2, Page 257. Date, 5-7-08. But what people at home? ‘‘T must confess to you that I am watching with the deepest concern, and dismay the thundering sentences that are now being passed for sedition, ete. I read today that stone-throwers in Bombay are getting twelve months! This is really outrageous. The sentences on the two Tinnevellt-Tuticorin men are wholly indefensible one gets transportation for life, the other for ten years. Such sentences! They cannot stand. We must keep order, but excess of severity is not the path to order. On the contrary, it is the path to the bomb.’’ Vol. 2, Pages 269-70. Date, 7-2-08. ‘*T wish you would in your next letter tell me the end of the story of the young Corporal, who in a fit of ex- citement, shot the first Native he met. What happened to the Corporal? Was he put on lis trial? Was he hanged? I cannot but honor Curzon for his famous affair with the Ninth Lancers, so far as I have correctly heard the story. If we are not strong enough to prevent murder, then our pharisaic glorification of the stern jus- tice of the Britush Raj 1s nonsense. . On the other hand it is idle for us to pretend to the natives that we wish to understand their sentiment. . . . and yet silently acquiesce in all these violent sentences. You will say to me ‘These legal proceedings are at bottom acts of war against rebels and locking a rebel up for life is more affable and polite than blowing him from a gun: you must not measure such sentences by the ordinary stand- ards of a law-court; they are the natural and proper penalties for Mutiny and the Judge on the bench is really the Provost-Marshal in.disguwse.’ Well, be it so. But if you push me into a position of this sort—and I don’t deny that it is a perfectly tenable position, if you hke— then I’ll drop reforms. I won’t talk any more about the New Spirit of the Times and I’ll tell Asquith that I’m not the man for the work.’’ Vol. 2, Pages 272-3. Date, 8-19-08. TAGORE’S RENUNCIATION OF HIS KNIGHTHOOD ‘“‘The enormity of the measures taken by the Gov- ernment in the Punjab for quelling some local dis- turbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British sub- jects in India. The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilized govern- ments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent and remote. Considering that such treatment has been meted out to a population, disarmed and resourceless, by a power which has the most terribly efficient or- ganization for the destruction of human lives, we must strongly assert that it can claim no moral expediency, far less moral justification. The accounts of insults and sufferings, undergone by our brothers in the Pun- jab, have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India, and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers,—possibly congratulating themselves for imparting, what they imagine as, salutary lessons. The time has come when badges of honor make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand shorn of all special distinctions by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so-called in- significance, are liable to suffer a degradation not fit for human beings.’’ Extract from letter of Rabin- dranath Tagore to Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India, resigning his title of knighthood. BRITISH ADMISSIONS OF INDIAN MISGOVERNMENT = INDUSTRIAL STAGNATION Question. What is the policy of the British Govern- ment regarding the industrial growth of India and why has India’s textile trade become almost extinct? Answer. ‘‘British policy in India is British trade.’’ William Pitt in 1784. “The mills of Paisley and Manchester were created by the sacrifice of Indian manufacture. Had India been independent she could have retaliated. This act of self- defense was not permitted her. She was at the mercy of the stranger. British goods were forced on her with- out paying any duty. The foreign manufacturer em- ployed the arm of political injustice to keep down and ultimately strangle a competitor with whom he could not have contended on equal terms.’’ Mills’ ‘‘ History of British India.”’ EDUCATION Question. Had India a civilization before British rule was established there? Answer. ‘‘This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and barbarous population. They are a people for ages civilized and cultivated, cultivated by all the arts of polished life while we were yet in the woods.’’ Kd- ward Blake. Question. Why are the Indian people now 92 per cent, illiterate, and why did the British Government spend but $18,115,000 on Indian education in 1917, whilst the fund for English education was increased by $19,145,000 ? Answer. ‘‘We have just lost America from our folly in having allowed the establishment of schools and col- leges, and .1t would not do for us to repeat the same act of folly in regard to India.’’ Director of East India Company. ‘‘The Hindu has such a prodigious memory and is so clever at examinations that the Englishman cannot stand up against lim.’? Wm. Archer (Pro-British) in his ‘‘India and the Future.”’ ‘*Edueation, which will probably be free and com- pulsory in Bombay City, will only accentuate the trou- ble, for educated men and women will not suffer the con- ditions now imposed on the Bombay working classes.’’ London Times. INCREASING POVERTY Question. Why is India ‘‘steadily growing poorer ?’’ Answer. ‘‘The increasing poverty of India is due to many causes, primarily the decay of handicrafts and the substitution of foreign for home manufacture. A further cause is the drain from the country. The home charges increase from year to year. The annual drafts from India to Great Britain, at a moderate computation, amount to thirty million pounds. (Note. Roughly $150,000,000.) Jt can never be to the advantage of the people of India to remit annually this enormous sum to a foreign country.’’ Sir Henry Cotton in ‘‘New India.’’ Pages 113-115. 1916. Question. What is meant by home charges? Answer. ‘‘In home charges for the India Office (in London) ; for recruiting (in Great Britain for soldiers to serve in India); for civil and military pensions (to men now living in England, who were formerly in the Indian service) ; for pay and allowances on furlough (to men on visits to England) ; for private remittances and consign- (from India, to England) ; from interest on Indian debt (paid to parties in England); and for interest on rail- way and other works (paid to shareholders in England), there is annually drawn from India and spent in the United Kingdom a sum calculated at from twenty-five millions to thirty millions of pounds.’’? The late Alfred Webb, member of the British House of Commons. INDIAN FAMINES Question. India produces large quantities of food stuffs. Why then do her people starve? What is the state of affairs there now? Answer. of food.’’ ‘‘India is more liable to devastation by famine than other countries because India is steadily growing poorer. There are 70,000,000 of continually hungry people in In- dia.*’ Sir William Digby, C. I. E. “Famine is a providential remedy for over-popula- tion.’’ British Official to Wm. J. Bryan. ‘“The government land-tax assessment does not leave enough food to the cultivator to support himself and his family throughout the year.’’ Sir William Hunter. ‘“Appalling conditions prevail throughout India. 32,- 000,000 deaths (May, 1918—March, 1919) have occurred already. 150,000,000 are on the verge of starvation. Plague and famine are rampant. Death stalks through- out the land. Existing conditions are unparalleled else- where in the history of the world. They are indescrib- able and ghastly. The cities are peopled by emaciated humanity. Traffic has ceased, mails are undelivered and business is at a standstill.’’ Toronto Times and Toronto Globe. April 24th and 26th, 1919. (Note. The Canadian Government immediately suppressed these reports. They were deemed to constitute ‘‘tactless publicity.’’) INDIA PAYS FOR ITS SUBJUGATION “Indian famines are famines of money, not Lord George Hamilton. Question. What is the Indian army used for, why do army estimates Increase so much, and who pays for the army’s maintenance ? Answer. ‘‘Perhaps the most striking testimony to the virtue of benevolent despotism is seen in the employment of native races to fight our battles for us.... By a master stroke of genius we utilise them fo still further extend and also to defend the Empire. It is very largely in this way that our Indian Empire has been built up.’’ J. G. Goddard, member of the British House of Commons. ‘‘The Indian divisions arrived in France in time to fill a gap that could not otherwise be filled and there con- secrated with their blood the unity of India with the British Empire. There are a few survivors of those two splendid divisions.’’ Lord Harding in House of Lords. July, 1917. “India was bled absolutely white during the first few weeks of the war.’’? Lord Harding in the House of Lords. ‘Justice demands that England should pay a portion of the cost of the great Indian army maintained in India for Imperial rather than Indian purposes. This has not yet been done and famine-stricken India is being bled for the maintenance of England’s world-wide Empire.’’ The late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, former Prime Minister of England. (Note. This criticism of the dead «Prime Minister is as applicable today as the day he uttered it.) 4 eee < ) “ : Pe: Mirosil ‘GOPAL SINGH, Secty. Gadar Party. EAMONN President of Ireland. DE VALERA, ED GAMMONS, Western Secty. F. F. I. GADAR PARTY HONORS PRESIDENT DE VALERA One of the most interesting functions participated in by Eamonn De Valera, President of the Irish Republic, during his visit to San Francisco, was the presentation to him by Gopal Singh and Jagat Singh, representing the Hindustan Gadar Party, of a handsomely engraved sword and a large silk flag of the Irish Republic. The sword was of silver with the following engraving: ‘‘Presented to Eamonn De Valera, President of the Irish Republic, by the Hindustan Gadar Party of America. San Francisco, U. 8. A., July 21, 1919.’’ The flag was made of pure silk, six feet wide and nine feet long. Ed Gammons, Secretary of the Pacific Coast Branch of the Friends of Freedom for India, read the following address : To Eamonn De Valera, President of the Irish Republic. Greeting! On behalf of the Hindustan Gadar Party, we bid you a hearty welcome. We have a common cause and a common enemy. Both of our nations have indis- putable claims to nationhood. The Indian question almost parallels the Irish one. England destroyed the industries of both our countries, because they conflicted with her own. She has watched our people perish by preventable famine. She has sought by the suppression of our languages and customs to make ‘‘happy English children’’ of the youth of India and Ireland. She has violated every covenant made with our peoples. She has kept us in subjection by bayonet, martial law and the perpetuation of internal differences. Her underground dungeons and unprovoked assassi- nations are common to both countries. We were stripped of our foodstuffs during the late war, so that democracy might triumph. But democracy was denied us, after Britain had added considerably more than a million miles to her already bloated empire. These are but a few of the counts in our common accusation. If the ingenuous Cromwell and the historian Lecky have, themselves, made out a case for Ireland, we, too, shall quote Britishers on the spoliation of India. Speak- ing of the operations of the East India Company in, Bengal, Lord Clive stated: ‘‘I shall only say that such a scene of anarchy, confusion, corruption and extortion was never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal; nor such and so many fortunes acquired in so unjust or rapacious manner.’’ In recent times, Lord Morley, himself an Indian official, was incensed at the brutality of Indian officialdom. ‘‘Your mention of martial law makes my flesh creep,’’ he once wrote Lord Minto, then Viceroy of India. ‘‘Martial law is in reality the absence of all law.’’ The misgovernment of India began the day the first British official landed there and shall doubt- less continue till the last one departs. It is extremely regrettable that an influential section of the American press finds time to slight both our causes. Pick up these publications and whilst we find boastings of the gigantic bank clearings and unlimited prosperity of modern America, we turn to the news columns to find that thirty millions of Britain’s subjects in India have perished from hunger and plague and that the crimes charged against the late Prussian Hmpire are being daily duplicated in Ireland. Is it so very difficult to imagine that if George Washineton and the men of Valley Forge had not expelled Britain, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, the gigantic bank clear- ings of today would be but an evanescent dream, famine would follow the disappearance of our foodstuffs and that the Prussianlike atrocities practiced in Ireland would be a daily characteristic of British domination in America ? The Irish people of America have joined the labor movements of the world in protesting against the bar- barities recently practiced against our people by Britain, and, but a few weeks ago, the California Convention of the Friends of Irish Freedom unanimously adopted a resolution of protest against the proposed deportation of several of our countrymen into the hands of a British firing squad in India. We are very appreciative of this support and we are more than gratified at your consenting to accept this small testimonial of our sympathy with the Irish people in their struggle for freedom. We congratulate them on electing as their chief executive—not a man skilled in the diplomatic sophistry of yesterday and unfortu- nately of today also—but one who has proved his mettle on the field of battle, one who means what he says and says what he means. Please convey to the Dail Eireann and the Irish People on your return our cordial greetings and our sincere hope that their splendid fight for freedom will be in- dorsed by the whole world. THE HINDUSTAN GADAR PARTY OF AMERICA. San Francisco, Cal. GOPAL SINGH. July 21, 1919. JAGAT SINGH. President De Valera replied: *‘T thank you for your splendid presentation and 1 gladly accept it. I take it that the sword represents the sacred idea of the struggle of both our countries for their freedom and the sword is really a sacred weapon when used in such a righteous cause. ‘India is at a big disadvantage in her fight because of the monopolization of the avenues of public information by British interests. India’s story is in that way sup- pressed to a large extent. The Irish are luckier. Our men and women are scattered all over the world and everywhere they tell the story of Ireland’s oppression and exploitation. ‘*Yon have one big advantage though. That is your numbers. With your hundreds of millions organized you could quickly gain your independence. That is your ereat problem—organization! Of course England will seek to perpetuate internal differences, magnify them if at all possible and then say that she must stay in India te maintain order. That’s an old game of hers. But you must forget internal differences and customs in order to present a united front to the enemy. Everything should be sacrificed in the interest of unity. BRITISH PROMISES AND The agitation for the emasculation of the Montagu reform scheme now in progress, is not a surprise to India. British promises to India are not made to be kept. They are dictated by political expediency and afterwards con- veniently forgotten. Prior to the crowning of King George the Fifth as Emperor of India, on December 12, 1911, there was considerable unrest. This was partially allayed by a ‘“‘momentous dispatch,’’ sent to the Marquis of Crewe, Secretary of State for India, by Lord Harding, the Governor-General of India. “Tt is certain that in the course of time,’’ said Lord Harding, ‘‘the just demands of Indians for a larger share in the government of their country will have to be satisfied, and the question will be how this devolution of power can be conceded without impairing the supreme authority of the Governor-General in Council. The only possible solution of the difficulty would appear to be gradually to give the Provinces a larger measurement of self-government, until at last India would consist of a number of administrations, autonomous in all provincial affairs, with the Government of India above them all, and possessing power to interfere in cases of misgovern- ment, but ordinarily restricting its functions to mat- ters of Imperial concern.”’ CHRISTIAN ENGLAND’S ‘““Very soon after the battle of Plassey (1757) the Bengal plunder began to arrive in London. Probably since the world began, no investment has yielded the profit from the Indian plunder. The amount of treasure wrung from the conquered people and trans- ferred from India to English banks between Plassey and Waterloo (fifty-seven years) has been variously estimated at from $2,500,000,000 to $5,000,000,000. ‘The Irish People recognize the justice of your fight and are heartily with you. . Your cause is just. The democratic forces of the world stand behind you.”’ For almost half an hour President De Valera discussed every phase of the Indian situation with the deputation. He surprised his visitors by his thorough knowledge of Indian problems. When told that the recent massacres of unarmed Indians, who were protesting against the enactment of the infamous Rowlatt Bills, had solidly united Mohammedan and Hindu against the British Government, he expressed keen satisfaction. ‘‘That’s good news,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m very glad to hear it.’’ The deputation then withdrew after a cordial good-bye. BRITISH PERFORMANCES After the ‘‘King-Emperor’’ had returned to Buck- ingham Palace and whilst Indian ‘‘moderates’’ were still enthusing over the pledged word of the ‘‘mother country,’’ the Marquis Crewe glibly repudiated Lord Harding’s pledge in an uncompromising speech in the House of Lords on June 24th, 1912. ‘“Thére is a certain section in India,’’ he said, ‘‘ which looks forward to a measure of self-government approach- ing to that which has been granted to the Dominions. I see no future for India along these lines. The experi- ment of a measure of self-government, practically free from parliamentary control, to a race which is not our own, even though that race enjoys the advantages of the best services of men belonging to our race, is one which cannot be tried. It is my duty as Secretary of State to repudiate the idea that Lord Harding’s dispatch implies anything of the kind as the hope or goal of the policy of the Government.’’ On July 29th, in another speech in the House of Lords, the Marquis of Crewe emphasized his stand. ‘‘ The maintenance and perpetual continuance of British rule is the best way of securing the happiness of the Indian people,’’ he stated. What an excellent example of what Nietzsche terms master morality! DEBUT IN PAGAN INDIA The methods of embezzlement and plunder, by which every Briton in India enriched himself during the earlier history of the East India Company gradually passed away, but the drain did not pass away. The difference between the earlier day and the present is that India’s tribute to England is obtained by ‘in- direct methods’ under forms of law.’? Adam Brooks in Laws of Civilization and Decay. SLAVERY COSTS MORE THAN INDE- PENDENCE In 1918-19 India paid almost four times as much for her army employed ‘‘to stil further extend and defend the Empire’’ than Japan, an independent nation, did on her army employed to advance the interests of Japan. Indian Attys mere | $219,750,000. oJ ADANOSE GAT RY ge dn oa oece oh Pasa 57,306,500. “THE STRANGLING OF A COMPETITOR” Cotton Imported to Great Britain. BB 2 Neate Sadie rahe MORIN oct emd a: nd 1,266,608 pieces. Yn 45 ee i Sail AR gat "anal digae ved 306,086 pieces. British Cotton Exported to India. Bei te AR Ch NR nae tie 5 ih 818,208 yards. ES AA Ae es ae eee ae 51,777,277 yards. SHIPBUILDING ABOLISHED India, being an old maritime nation, built her own ships. In 1857 she turned out 34,286 ships with a, ton- nage of 1,219,958 tons. In 1863 England, having then completely gobbled up India, abolished the shipbuilding industry. In 1912 India’s entire merchant fleet con- sisted of 130 ships of 80 tons each. Comment is un- necessary. ** As the Lord liveth, England does not seek a yard of territory. We are in this war from motives of purest chivalry, to defend the weak.’’ ‘David Lloyd George, 11-10-1914. England received over 1,400,000 miles of additional territory as a result of the ‘‘demo- cratic’’ peace conference. THE TRAITOR WITHIN THE GATES If anything has served to keep India illiterate, servile and enslaved it is the educated Indian, who, alive to the soul-killing oppression of an alien government, has crawled, fawningly, to the feet- of England’s sov- ereigus and received reward for his treachery to the national ideal. This type of Indian is termed a ‘‘moderate.’’ Here is a pen picture of one, Lord Sinha, now sitting in the British House of Lords, drawn from a speech he delivered to the Indian Na- tional Congress, held at Bombay in December, 1915: ‘““My first duty is to lay at the feet of our august and beloved Sovereign (King George the Fifth of England), our unswerving fealty, our unshaken al- legiance and our enthusiastic homage. And we desire to express our gratitude to Almighty God for shield- ing our beloved Emperor. May he live to lead his people and promote their happiness and prosperity. India, her princes and her people have vied with each other in rallying around the Imperial standard, when the enemies of the Empire counted on disaffection and internal troubles. The spectacle affords a striking proof of the wisdom of those statesmen who have in recent years guided the destiny of the British Em- pire in India. The path is long and de- vious and we shall have to tread weary steps before we get to the promised land (self-government). I yield to none in my desire to get self-government, but there 1s a wide gulf between desire and attainment. The Government has not only ignored, but has put positive obstacles in the way of the people acquiring or retaining a spirit of national self-help. , The Indians (taken into the regular army because there were not enough English troops) though BRITONS ON THE “The Rowlatt Bills have cemented the people of India.’’ Secretary of. State for India Montagu. ‘The Rowlatt Bills rob Indians of all freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of public meeting.”’ Robert Smillie, famous British labor leader. ‘“‘The Rowlatt Bills are surversive of the principles of liberty and justice and destructive of the elementary they may now obtain the highest badge of valor, viz., the Victoria Cross, not one of them can receive a commission in His Majesty’s Army—irrespective ‘of birth or bravery, education or efficiency. ; While the humblest European and even the negro Has the right to carry arms, the law of the land denies the privilege of possessing or carrying arms to the most law-abiding and respectableIndian. Not only will the galing sense of racial inferiority and the overt im- putation of universal disloyalty be removed by such a measure (abolishment of the Arms act) but people will also get rid of onerous disabilities in the way of defending themselves against the attacks of wild animals, as well as lawless adversaries. After nearly two centuries of British rule India has been brought today to the same emasculated condition as the Britons were in the beginning of the fifth century. We are seeking to regain our lost self-re- Are the 250,000,000 of Indian culti- their spect, vators to go on paying 30, 40 and 50% for finances for hundreds of years to come? 4 Rich in all the resources of nature India continues to be the poorest country in the world.-. I will venture to say that the solution of the problem (com- merciat development) can no longer be safely post- poned. It will test, as no other question has done, the altruism of English statesmanship, for in promoting and protecting Indian industries, it may become neces- sary to sacrifice the interests even of English manu- facturers. Under the benign dispensation of an inscrutable Providence, we shall emerge into a new era of peace and goodwill, and our beloved Mother- land will occupy an honored place in the Empire with which her fortunes are indissolubly linked.’’ ROWLATT BILLS rights of the individual.’’ Colonel Wedgewood, mem- ber of the British House of Commons. ‘“‘The intention of the Rowlatt Bills is the strength- ening of the satraps of India so that they will be able to put their hands upon anyone likely to be danger- ous.’’ Neil McLean, also member of the House of Commons. LIQUOR FORCED ON INDIA ““Previous to the era of British dominion, the inhabi- tants of India were among the most abstemious of peoples. ‘““W.S. Caine stated in the House of Commons in 1888, ‘The government 1s driving the Indian liquor trade as hard as it can. If the government continues its present policy of doubling its revenue every ten years, in thirty years India will be one of the most drunken and de- English soldiers in India were recently compelled to act as strike-breakers when Indian postoffice employes in Calcutta went on strike. Of the 400 Hindus who sought to enter Canada in 1914, 60 were shot after their deportation to India. graded countries on the face of the earth.’ ‘In the vicinity of Bombay a movement was started among the country people against the use and sale of liquor, whereupon eight of the leaders were imprisoned. ‘‘Archbishop Jeffries (31 years in India) stated; ‘For one converted Christian as the proof of Christian labor, ingland has made a thousand drunkards.’ ’’? From the American Encyclopaedia on Temperance. “To remain in Egypt in violation of our solemn pledge would make the English character contemptible in the eyes of the whole world.’’ Late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, British Prime Minister. You, of course, know how this pledge was kept! DEATH STILL FACES DEPORTEES To THe AMERICAN PEOPLE: We are still in danger of death at the hands of the British Government. The protests of Organized Labor, the protests of American Liberals of every shade of opinion, the protests even of some of your representa- tives in the National Congress—all of these are, as yet, unavailing against the urge of the British Gov- ernment that we be deported back to India, there to face the firing squad or the public hangman. It is not by any means an acceptable task to perform, but we must point out that Great Britain has a consider- able influence in matters of this description and that to overcome that influence a weightier one must be brought into action at once. That influence is at your disposal. It is your will. You constitute the court of final appeal. You will be heard. YOU MUST BE HEARD! India has been spurred into revolt. It is not a purposeless revolt, nor yet an armed one. It ts the defiance of an unarmed nation, whose industries have been destroyed, whose educational facilities have been wiped out and illiteracy fostered so that our people might be pointed out as unfit for self-government. whose people have been decimated by preventable famine and plague. Can you visualize thirty-two millions of our dead in less than one year, not mown down by machine guns or the other martial imple- ments of our oppressors, but dying of sheer starvation and plague when the highest exportation of foodstuffs in the history of our country took place? That is what occurred in India. How long would an administration last in Amer- ica which shot down 1600 out of 6000 unarmed Ameri- cans, who meet to protest against the acts of that administration? How long would Americans allow an administration -to last, which abolished trial by jury, deprived one accused of the right of counsel, legalized torture and conducted this farcial ‘‘trial’’ in camera? How long would Americans obey a Brit- ish edict to descend from street-car and automobile and grovel in the dust before every British officer who came along? How long would America watch her women and children die eating herbs and _ grass, whilst her grain was shipped by the million tons to Great Britain? This is but a brief description of the condition of India today! Great Britain desires to quell our voice in America. She hates to hear the truth told about her terroristic government of India. She would hurl us into our graves in her vain rage to crush hope and truth. Can that be done in free America? The spirits of the immortal Lincoln and of the great Jefferson seem to say: ‘‘These libertarians of old India are safe on our shores. America’s traditions enshroud them. No foreign power can compel or entice the violation of the hospitality of this free nation’’. TARAKNATH Das, D. K. SArKAr, GopaL SINGH, SANTOKH SINGH, BHAGWAN SINGH, S..N. GHOSE. ~ LABOR’S ROLL OF HONOR An entire list of the labor bodies of America, which protested against our deportation, would fill many pages of this pamphlet. The most prominent, how- ever, are: The Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor. Central Federated Union of New York. Chicago Federation of Labor. Seattle Central Labor Couneil. San Joaquin, Cal., Labor Council. 3rownsville, Pa., Trades Couneil, Tacoma Central Labor Council. Boilermakers No. 233, Oakland. Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Boilermakers’ Union No, 6, San Francisco. Contra Costa, Cal., Labor Council. San Francisco Central Labor Couneil. Detroit Federation of Labor. Alameda, Cal., Central Labor Couneil. Alameda Building Trades Couneil. Street Railway Employes No. 518, San Francisco. Soldiers and Sailors’ Union, Seattle. Machinists’ Lodge No. 68, San Francisco. Molders’ Union No. 164, San Francisco. Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, San Francisco. Pasadena, Cal., Board of Labor. Micrometer Lodge Machinists, New York. Millmen’s Union No. 262, San Jose, Cal. Erie, Pa., Central Labor Union. Millmen’s Union No. 42, San Francisco. Bridge and Structural Ironworkers, Pittsburg, Pa. Office Employes No. 13,188, San Francisco. The action of the California Convention of the Friends of Irish Freedom in unanimously adopting a resolution protesting against our deportations, was copied by numerous branches of the widespread Irish organization, headed by the Commodore John Barry and the New York Local Councils. The Irish Pro- gressive League of New York, the Catholic Women’s League of Pittsburg, Pa., and many other Irish and Catholic organizations have done likewise. We grate- fully acknowledge their prompt and sympathetic ac- tion. Anyone wishing to assist the defense of the above six members of this organization may forward funds either to us or to the Friends of Freedom for India, Room 601, 7 East 15th street, New York City, the only organizations in charge of these cases. India’’, CONTENTS. Copies of this pamphlet and the preceding one, ‘‘The Tragedy of can be obtained absolutely tree by communicating with us. PRESS MAY FREELY REPRODUCE Hindustan Gadar Party, 5 Wood street, San Francisco, Cal.