Mr. Churchill’s Warning

IN view of the amount of unsophisticated nonsense that has been spoken and written about Dyer and Sir Michael O’Dwyer having between them saved the Punjab and India, the emphatic declaration to the contrary made by the Secretary of State for War, Mr. Churchill, is of profound interest. He said that he did not believe for a moment that General Dyer saved India. “The British power in India does not stand on such a foundation, but on something very much stronger. I had never stood on the basis of physical force alone. It would be fatal to the British Empire to try to make it do so.” In this connection, Mr. Churchill uttered a note of warning which the party of physical force would do well to carefully lay to heart. “It was true,” said Mr. Churchill, “that there had been a complete breakdown in Egypt recently of relations between the British and the Egyptian people, but we were trying laboriously and patiently to rebuild the relationship, the sudden rupture of which grievously pained us. The fact that a break-down similar to that which had occurred in Egypt had not occurred in India was largely due to the constructive policy of the Government, to which Mr. Montagu had made so great a personal contribution. The events in Egypt and Ireland had shown the enormous utility of Mr. Montagu’s work.” Is this not to say, in other words, that if India is to be saved from a catastrophe such as has overtaken Egypt and Ireland, the only course open to the Government is to follow Mr. Montagu’s policy to its logical conclusion and to take steps to confer full self-government on India as early as practicable? Anything short of that will serve little purpose to restore confidence.

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