Danger to Public Peace and Order

IN our leading article to-day we have dealt with some points of general interest arising from Mrs. Besant's interview with His Excellency the Governor of Madras and have called attention to that lady's statement that this time Madras is quite untroubled. Her words were that at the present time Madras is quiet and untroubled and that the Governor's proposed action would turn it into a condition of turmoil like Bengal. That is a statement in which any one cannot detect Mrs. Besant's undaunted courage and high sense of patriotism. It is nothing but the literal truth that Madras, as for that matter India, is absolutely peaceful. Indeed, no nation can claim to have greater regard for peace and order or greater respect for constituted authority than we Indians. It would be a grave exaggeration and unmerited slander for anyone to say that an intellectual and almost stoical people like Indians who are models of self-restraint are disturbing public peace or obstructing Government.