WILL THERE BE A CHANGE OF POLICY?

A friend who has just returned from Delhi informs us that the general belief among people in that city whose opinions are entitled to weight is that we are on the eve of a campaign of severe repression than what we have seen so far. The belief at Delhi is only an epitome of a widespread belief all over India, and not in India alone. At least one British journal of the highest eminence has during the last few days given expression to the same belief. “We hear disturbing rumours from Downing Street,” writes the Daily News, “of a new policy of resolute rule in India. If this means merely the intention to suppress disorder firmly, the action must be judged on its merits, but if it means open reversal of the policy of appeasement and goodwill pursued by Mr Montagu and Lord Reading as constantly as they were allowed to maintain it, we may soon be faced with a crisis greater than that of 1857. The Government has already made a serious mistake by its failure to speed up Reform, and the abandonment of progress and the substitution for it of a ruthless campaign of military suppression will be a blunder worse than a crime.” This is strong language, but not stronger than the circumstances of the hypothetical case demand, though for our part we see no reason to believe that the trouble in India will even in the case assumed by our contemporary take the form of physical resistance. That is not our reading of the temper of the country, which in spite of sporadic outbreaks of madness which every sane man must condemn is distinctly non-violent. But non-violence can be as much a source of embarrassment to the Government as the most organised form of violence, and the determined opposition of people, even if completely non-violent and constitutional could at any moment transform the character of a Government in spite of itself.

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