THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1060.
WITH SHARPEVILLE IN THE NEWS...AN ECHO FROM THE PAST
I
FIRE! shouted the general-and 379 Indians died...
was a hot morning in Amritsar, Punjab, India, on April 13, 1919. Brigadier-General Dyer and the District Magistrate moved together through the streets of the Sikh city,
Wherever they stopped a drum beat and a proclamation was read- an 8 p.m. curfew, nobody to leave the city without a pass, no processions and no gatherings of more than four men.
Soon afterwards, another dan was beating in the only att empty kerosene drum, and a meeling was called for 4.30 p.m. Shartly after 4.30, 970 Indis lay dont, about throw flators that mundier injured, in the heat of Amritsar.
Hearing belatedly of the mure ing. General Dyer stational pickets around the enty and truck 23 Gurkhas and 25 Balurt with rifles, 40 Carlbay with kukrip and two armoured cars, c hended $11 the meet place, Jallianwala Bagh.
The Bagh was an oblong pre of waste ground, partly rosterer with debris. There were theer decrepit de Trues, my bushes a ral 'nu gross.
Blind alleys
Sun-
I was almost entirely rounded by walls, eight or mi feet high at their lowest points,
There was one maxi
trance
fwn or three passages us well which led te shurt blind alleys The main entrance was mar. row. General Dyer had to leave his anmoured eas and machine guna outside. At the opposite end! of the oblong, about 100 yards away, he saw a non aditessing a crowd of about 15,000 people.
No one ever found at what the man was talking about. For the General stationej 25 of his troops each side of the entrance, on raised ground.
Without warning the crowd
to disperse, he ordered his men
By ADRIAN MITCHELL
The shock wave which swest round, the world was delayed
tho truth was only because mulled at its source.
merely dispersing the crowd, but one of producing a sufficient military moral effect from a point of view, not only on those who were present but mole ees- It was not until December 18pecially throughout the Punjabi". that the Secretary of Stale far india, Mr Montagu, learned that byer had shot without warning
t the principles un which they
or the treatment of the wounded he said: "The wounded had only to apply for help. Bu! did not in this because they themselves would be in Then came the reckoning for custry for being in the as- sembly was ready to help General Dyer.
Dyr: acted.
The committee appointed by them if they applied.
the Government and headed by the late Lord Husler, a judge of the Court of Session and Saberal in polities, condemned him
two major counts-
the
A sequel
"I think it quite possible that have dispersed them without Arings.....
*First that be started Bring I could without giving the people chance to disperse and seconi That the Pontinued fting for t substantial period of time after the crowd! hai commenced to digere."
"I could disperse them for some time, then they would all come back and laugh at me, and 1. considered I would be making myself a fool." Sand the commillee: "None of More than 20 years later, on March 13, 1940, came a sudden fire- them were provided with
10 the
shootings at the seque! ans, although some ot
Amritsar. may have been carrying sticks."
Sir Michaet O'Dwyer, who World reaction was immediate
action "the and hurrified. In India mony had called Dyer's
derate indians were forced in decisive factor in crushing the
was shot dead uppuse British rule. One of rebellion,"
the father of Pand the steps of Caxton Hall by in them was
Indium. Nehru,
Forty years later one thing is elear. Amrtisar could have been worse.
Dismissed
to fire. They kept on firing for Dyer was dismissed. But a
about ten minutes. 1.650 rounds.
motion in his support in
い
The crowd began to ran from House of Commons split the
the Bagh us as the shots Unionist Party down the middle begun. But if was dallicth to and it was only defeated by 231)
Kel out.
Afterwards Amrits was quiet, entirely subdued. The hospitals were cramined. Relatives search ed through the piles of dead and wounded for their own people,
Said an Indian eye-witness, the Stunt Shradhanand: "The Facil dead and rounded were treners, handled for 27 because the authorities unted nature of the to know the
wounds and the umber of the dead, but because the authori
not want to let the ties let
know the number of people drad bodiez,"
Voies to 129.
Mr Churchill, Mr Asquith and Mr Bomar Law all spoler against Duer in fairly polite terms. But if it had not been for the Labour and Independent itals, the Government would have been defeated.
the louse of Lords motion deploring the Govern ment's conduct of the Dyer cus was curled by 1206 votes.
Dyer returned to England and £90,000 was raised for him by public subscription. His action adinrera. He died In
bad won 1927.
At first it seemed that General Dyer was secure in the applause Before the committee he de- fended himself calmly: "There the British in India.
In October 1010 he was pre was no reason to further parley moted to permanent command of with the
toub," he said, "evi
brigade. The priests of the dently they were there to defy
the. Ko. Gulden Temple in Amritsar con→
"If more gratulated bun and msisted on
troops had been t
For although General Dyer told his investigators that he fired where the crowds were thickest, he also said he would probably have used his machine-
Kuns if he had only bera able to get them on to that violent patch of waste ground.
TALKING POINTS
Al oppressors attribute the frustration of their de
want of suf. sires to the
they ficient rigour. Then redouble the efforts of their impotent cruelly.
EDMUND BURKE,
★
God give me the strength a fact though it baptising him as a Sikh The hand the casualties would have to face
itslay me.
-T. H. HUXLEY.
Governor of the Punjab, Sir been greater in proportion. Michael O'Dwyer, supported him. was no longer a question of
**LOOK!
Begêpe Engrças Zerulan
ALK
CAFE
Parts VINS
Average height, thick sot, thin on top, speaks Russian fluently-last seen under escort in Paris ...
Is this what
Laulu Expresa Dervice
Khrushchev really_came
to France to say?
WHAT was Khrushchev's rool
purpose in going to France? The other day there came a moment in his tour which seemed powerfully to reveal his ambition. For this master of adroit timing and emotional appeal chose a poignant spot as his stage for a meaningful message, aware that the world would not miss it.
Rheims.
by GEORGE
GALE
must put it out at once, and at time see to it that
KHRUSHCHEV, his mind filled with the images of Verdun, and the fearful remembrances of two the same
world wars against Germany, drove to Rheims last week through the battlefields of yesterday to deliver a violent, crushing attack on Germany and its Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
there are no sparks left. If there Arc ally sparks he must extinguish them immediately, It he doesn't a gust of wind may set the fire alight again,”
This speech was surely what set between granite that led to speakers to a large crowd pul- "I hope we will remember these lie had come to France for the monument of Victory. He side. He immediately went to lessons of history in order that referring to Aden- we may choose a policy which Adenauer be likened to suw the hills where half n the attack Haler, the one tenebing Ger- mille French were killed and many's God-given mission to as many Again Germans, Save the West and the other Brigians, Canadians, Americans, preaching the superiority of the Russians. German race In-al others.
Think again, was his urgent message.
Du
rearm Cantry which his twice this century been the stressor and inheudy, Khrushchev charges. is
planning a new attack,
He referred again to Adenauer: the Chancellor of Germany auer's statement in January in would prevent a third world Rome when, having seen the war and provent our children, doesn't want to put the sparks Pope, he declared: "I consider necusing us of tolerating a third cut means he wants to spread Gnd has given Germany a special aggression, a policy not to rearm war. mission as guardians of the West an eggressor who has twice at- against the pressure of Russia." tucked France and the Soviet "Personally," said Khrushchev, this century and now is nlap
very concerned with ning a third attack. words
The monument
#
'Like Hitler'
Khrushchev at
once
HT
of Chancellor
"1
these
Im
Adenauer.'
"They
compare
with the
are a
raco
History
Stalingrad
"We weren't frightened of Hitler and we are not frightened now, and things are very much different today. Nobody in France will raise his voice war f the friendship between the Solvet Union and France is
for
Verdun, Khrushchev had said, is the symbol for France that
Stalingrad is for Rusela.
"Prance has lost much. There strong." pre no statistics of the Soviet losses.
"I lost a son myself. "We should seek
ways of avoiding a polley leading to war, but you know yourselves that the forces of revenge are rising In West Germany.
"West
Germany
is
'Purification'
In one of these places did Khrushchev speak.
Instead he waited. Judging it more scemly,
he came to Rheims. Although he needed no 'pre- theory which Hitter thought un
elven that the Germans text he was promptly FRC. M. Jacquinot, French superior to athers
ask you to think why it Minister of State, introducing
for Chancellor was necessary This was no doubt the major Khrushchev in the Rheims lown speech Khrushchev made during hall, spoke about the battle- Adenatier to make this stato his tour of France; and the cir- ground they had seen and said ment." cumstances in which it was made how France "had suffered from were fult of the profoundest an aggressor.
No one but Khrushchev per- historical irony and relevancy,
Inter-
doing hape would have chosen si He flow from Dijon to Melz, rupted, rushing
with: And then eharacteristically everything to prevent the signs circumstances in which 20 ancient,
added that clways disputed "Which aggressor?" Said M. he the
he thought ing of a peace treaty. i don't violently to attack, not only Ger- barrier
to think any sensible person con between Jacquinot: Here in Rheims it perhaps Adenauer wanted traditional
many, not only is Chancellor France and Germany.
is not necessary to be explicit. have the Vatican's blessiog for explain to me, and I certainly but also his French host de He drove to Verdun
Germany to He is well known.
take on a special don't understand, that it is Gaulle's policy of "friendship Delimbed the great flight of steps Khrushchev: "It is not clear role in world affairs,
necessary to keep in existence with Adenauer." at all, Who is this anonymous "Let us think again while the vestiges of the Second World Equally characteristically, no DUKTOSSUT!"
there ix still time." sald War."
orie but Khrushchev, having Jackquinot "Very well, if you Khrushchev. "We who used to Khrushchev then moved on done this would arst have gone insist, I will say, having so be your allies in so many battles to a characteristic rustic simile off on a sight-seeing trip to much suffered from a Germanie now and it is Germany who is popcaling over the heads of the Rheims's lovely cathedral (the aggressor, France now wants to your friend and we who seem to bourgeois in the
salon of the clergy hid the sacraments away Eve in peace with Germany be your enemies.
town hall to the people crowd- from sight in case the Khrush- ng the square and streets out- chev eye should fall on them. side.
and later held a special Moss 10
I'M SAVING WHITE CIVILISATION,
X
and we want to do it together Think of the absurditv with all men of good-will.”
this position." Khrushchev rose to speaks. His words were relayed by loud-
He dwelt on the history of "Every peasant knows that if purify the air), European wars, and said: Where is a fire In his farm he
-London Express Bervica).
STRONTIUM 90
90...
Why it's not worth getting rattled about
IS THE sudden urge to bạn atomic tests due to a secret discovery that the medical affects of radioactiva fall-out may be much more. serious than First imagined?
This rumour is being spread
by
CHAPMAN PINCHER
by anti-H-bomb enthusiasts strontium 90, certainly doubled meats sensitive enough to re-
is intense, and in India, where the soil 1s sometimes highly rudioactive, people flourished for centuries,
have
Any increase. In radlongtivity particularly menacing because of the mysterious na-
.ccms
ture of anything otomie, but so for it in för less dangerous, to as being one of the main after the series of "dirty" Rus cord this show that the entire call than the steady pollutions reasons for Mr Macmillan's stan bomb tests in 1900. But the healthy humans body la radio- of the atmosphere with sulphur
absolute anoint of radioactivity active. rush visit
induce to
Traces of radium are and diesel dumea. on the ground and in food sup- present in bone, for example, President Eisenhower to piles is still negligibly small, because may lagde contain PREVENTION agree to the Russian, propo- sal that all tests should be suspended.
•
SAFE
adioactive chemicals.
What
about the much Nobody doubts that fil-gut publicised danger lo fubire could become # worldwide My inquiries show there is no If I start drinking two gigeneś generations from the effects of menace it a large number of truth in these suspicions. Ever of sherry a day instead of one, whita passed on from parents to short time. But this could hap
f4dioactivity on the hereditary aforte weapons exploded in å since the Windscale accident the 'anyone can spread the Tuews
unly during 4 full-ski Dovernment has taken the most that I am now drinking twice Children? The Medical Research ven
Coubell estimates ihs! even if alcmnie war, elaborate precautions to keep us heavily, But buch T- -bomb tests continua their the publle informed of every crease is unlikely to affect my
will ba *vel Increase in radioactivity. Thus health. The same la so far true hundredth
about of that Hearly half of Britain's entire of radioactive fall,qyt
caused by cosmic rays milk output 1; now sampled for rodionelivity avery fortnight. There is special concern about in from space.
Tho fall - out of radio struntlum 90'because I maker pative, bqmly products, such as
**
ir
The purpose of the Magmil
nirendy
Jan-Elsenhower megting in WRA
coming
abingion is to prevent such A
the
the Andes, where bynes radiemilye. But instrue strength of time cosmię, że
war by devising a safe wRI OG
suspending, testy as a first 'sign
towards discrement
kundan Express. Aurope).