T
8
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1948.
POWER WITHOUT THE SWORD.
of tho first nows passos, an appraisal must now bo mado of ano of the world's half-dozen most Important
HE last time I saw him, in thal momentary Indian pause between day and darkness, was there on Biria's lawn where he died. "I am a pent bullet," he said, amoy the silent, white-elut emprega. tion that surrounded Gandhi all his days, most of his nights.
A twin-engined transport came in low overhead, back from the Kashmir Treat. *** nsked for praee," he said; tig low, rather petulant voice of à very old m He was still in- comparably the most important person in Asia,
M
mon
So that strange little man, the simple and subtle, mork and mighty, has had to go at lust. Three hundred million people prayed it might never happen Some thought it could 122 happen. But a crazy Hind has done this thing: Gandhi dled and left the world short of a legend.
into
Dy JAMES
CAMERON
His Indin, but to unite her. death may do what his life could not-that, or signal a disaster past accounting.
As the shock
He was 78; very old for an Indian. He was tough; the con- ventional picture of a bowed und skinny ascetic did no justice to that smooth and nimble brown franic.
Self-indulgence
J
THAT serupulous personal Who could compress the life honesty of an earlier day and character of Mohandas once forced him to admit that in Karamchand Gandhi into a certain circumstances even fast. handful of worse? He did ing could become a self- his best tith-lf-analysis, indulgence. By the same token self-revelation: no living mif it was clear he could enjoy jail. ever commuted so publicly and it punctuated ú monstrously frankly with his soul for strictly busy life with islands of privney, Like Nehru, he wrote oceans of matter-of-fact ends,
literature in prison.
It was obvious he would al- ways get out of jail when he wished.
biggest, longest, most endring political campaign in Asin history.
Half his work was done, No
The ends were polities. Every- man was more loved in his time, thing in life was polities, from nor more louthed. He never gol his Cabinets at sunrise to his
The threat of a fast the Bengal Chub, but he evening prayers, from the milk may yet get into the Hindu of his goals to the is, tin watch pantheon of demigods, flis work he sung at his waist. Polities was twofold: not only to free equalled Faith plus Expediency,
SEFTON DELMER'S NEWSMAP
Moscow appoints
watchdog for Dimitrov
any jobs being offered to foreigners In the tray State service.
Tragis declare that this clause Is
Intolerable Imitation Their sovereignty. They object furthermore
the that experts and technicians appointed-
British
After supporting Britain would be enough; the British through the 1914 war he turned could not risk Gandhi dying of against her. In 1920 he opened Civil Dis. starvation on their hands. But the first All-India he never exploites that threat unedience. A famous word was for himself: jail was far too born-Satyagraha. valuable for him.
The weapon
#622
In And Out
of Parliament
By Ernest Thurtle, M.P. AR BEVIN'S foreign affairs speech did not stir the Commons to enthu- siasm, yet it would be unfair. to blame him for that.
The story he had to tell was essentially
one of diplomatic defent. Defent due in the main to Russian obstructión, eertain- ly, but nevertheless defeat, and that never arouses enthusiasm. Moreover, the speech was long, it was read, and it was noi the noticeably illumined by flashing phrase. .
YET the facts were all there, stat- ed plainly and firmly. They in- dlented netion, which is what the country wants,
A determination to have donc with the futile past and to inke prompt action to build on the ruin nf disappointed hopes meets prevailing mood.
A GENIAL-LOOKING
statesman,
the
elder
grave and sparkling
by turns, Mr Churchill returned from North Africa for this debate ut the top of his arm.
Л
*most
To the Government's firmer nitl- tude towards Russia he offered the fullest support, and he rejoiced nt
Intentions to seek He returned,and fasted for the declared 21-days that the Untouchables nifed Western Europe.
Now and again he had members might be brought into the rocking with amusement at some of Hindu electoral body. For al-his quips ("Leave It to history: ways parallel to his abiding lam writing "), but for the
[part matter and manner were grave, ambition of Swaraj-self-rule—and likewise was the mood of rode his obsession with the audience. melancholy Untouchables, whom Especially was this so when he disquieting future, the British called the Scheduled discussed the Castes and Gandhi called Hari-ith all its grim possibilities looming
Some jans, Children of God.
at least who listened could not help remembering how they had same voice sounding heard that notes of warning before civilisation's
ahend..
last blood-bath.
Exumine Gandhi and you are
For 50 years he fought for heset and confused with para-
them. His own paper was called lox. He was the politician and I was perhaps Gandhi's big the liarijan. The last copy I gest contribution to language saw carried his plaintive edi- philosopher, agitator and peace-
"Independence has maker. internationalist
it means, vaguely, "the force toriul: 111 f Patriot, religious leader and of righteousness"; eventually it brought them nothing. The shrewdest of party men.
came to mean "non-co-opera- Untouchables are still untouch-in tion," "pussive resistance.” able, shame to India."
He was respected almost to idolatry by the practitioners-- the Nehru, Ghaffar
Khan, Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajagopala- chari. He treated them like sons, anul they called him Bapu, which is Gujerati for Father. None to give
Here was Indian nationalism's most potent weapon. Troops who could handle a shrilling armed mob
NO
Unpredictablo
ALANSABLESE
*
his
"CONOMIC necessity (let us con- less it has made us all believers Colonial development now.
This was made manifest agein when the Commons discussed and Resources De- passed the Overseas velopment B. There were
Que differences on legislative delalls, but none on the against dark multitudes who wild flash of the unpredictable. ly
011. broad purpose of the measure. were helpless So the long life went
illuminated always by the So it was that we had the BILL unopposed third reading, stood wordlessly against the
the not only with the blessings of charge, allowed their heads to There is no way of saying yes Colonial Secretary and the Minister be beaten in, accepted death or or no about Gamihiji. (He was of Food, but also with warm com- 112223129282099515488903
from ex-Colonial invariably called Gandhiji; the mendation injury without a cry, and were is the untranslatable Indian Secretary Oliver Stanley, speaking certain silently replaced by more, came
from the Opposition front bench. Y European parish has
WITH age The speecht which has cost
suffis implying simultaneously COPE cratchetiness to sour that
for the new enterprise is heen fairly well- Dimitrov so much was his tenth
It is fair to say that only respect, devotion, admiration truly enormous. behieved. No one has in five days. He made it at an
1. Are paid vastly bigger-salarios unbreaking patience-When, ho
demanded, will Indians learn Gandhi' could have imposed and homely friendship).
Results are not likely to be rapid, for the difficulties are great, but in threatened anyone else with extremely liquid Press reception than their Iraqi colleagues.
love? I asked him a month or Satyagraha on a fiercely resent-
doe time immense advantages the dining ear which WHS
2. Are more concerned with the twn ago for news of one of his ful bitter people. It worked. carrying him back from
talks with Mountbatten. If
Then came 1930 and a new Bucharest to Sofa.
answered crossly: "Nowadays I rebellion, symbolised by the to Dandi. 3. Some have no apparent quali-can give you nothing. Except" famous Salt March
with a sudden grin-"my shawl. Salt was a Government mono- if you like." Like a fool. I did poly, its tax was hard on the One of the cases they citer la me was that of an ex-officer who wanted not take it.
in Iraq when his Army service cled, He was found highly-puid-jel it-State service for which he claimed no previous
war.
in
No one answered my "hank lenges." Mupenty's Literary Gazette front-paved
Cake L
Apart from his gaffe about THREA the Bukan federation Dimitrov picture of President
revealed Communist plans for Franes.
and fellow-revellers pouring whisky down a turkey's throat to make it drunk. But Am. bassador Bodell-Stith this tiny did not bother to send his usual note of protest.
Bene" he said, "we shall bring about the unideation of the Communist and Socialist Parties by causin a split in the Socialist Party."
He went on "The old Socialists
American Imverialison,
Even a diplomatic bombshell was a disclaimer-Pravda's ; fed by Blum and Ramader, who are proof to Bulgaria's Georgi servants of Dimitrov for talking out of will secerc And then the basic school about plans for a Balkan tart of the French Socialist Party
which is healthy will unite federation.
the French Communist Party."
Georgi certainly got il rocket-just when he was feci- ing really on top of the world after his long and intimate holi- day with the bugs at Sochi, Stalin's Crimean winter palace.
with
in
Dimitrav also declared that it was the Communist Party's inten- in to absorb the Socialist Party Carchoslovakia, This was direct contradiction Czechosin-
of vettin's Curamunist Premier Gott- wald, who had publiely disclaimed any such plan.
A few hours after Dimitrov's
Cieorgi is due to visit Warsaw newspaper. Fatherland Front, and Piárue shortly. I wonder whe hud splashed his federation ther General Damyanov wil speech a furious Moscow was on allowed to let him to. the line.
Sofia, thoroughly shaken. enbled its foreign representa-
☆ Outsidors? ✰
interests of Britain than
Ing.
fication for their jobs.
to slay
experience whatever.
those of
☆ False alarm ✰
poor.
to
He was old and young, solemn and humorous, profound and given to puerile practical jokes. He in-hould accrue from the project sisted that his own religion islended the Colonial peoples, to Britain, and everything: adrirable of every faith, the world as a whole,
Land Trefgame (sometime Garro- yet he was a Hindu of Hindus.
Jones, M.P.) is to head the Develop- He disliked capitalism, yet lived ment Corporation. Energetic and de- backed by a good half his time in the home of Birta, termined, and India's biggest industrini boss, and team, his ambition will be to set a there he died. He disapproved fhot pace of progress. Gandhi-choosing, as always, the British. In the midst of pre-people.
Britain and enjoyed the company of It cannot be too hot for the British, the simple symbol for the coming a new campaign against the plex issue-led his march to the Raj he is said to have wept when he
of When he was 13 source
suit, the ocean. heard of the bombing of London. Steadily, on foot, he crossed the
The mystic enormous country, volunteers fell in; very soon India alight from Karachi to the Bay of Bengal.
Gandhi was born in 1869 in the tiny State of Porbandar, to a family of the Vaisya carte,
the traders. he married a neighbour girl, Kasturba. She died three years ago, old, kindly, still literate.
#1
· was
Gandhi reached the sea, lifted handful of brine to his lips.
cheered-but the tux
India remained.
392692
(NAPTURED documents on Nazi- Soviet relations, just published by the American State Department, tare vastly revealing.
Russia,
wt learn, agreed with ONE thing he would never tolerate Hitler, in the days of seeming Nuzi nor countenance; that any man triumph that Britain and the U.S.A. should lift his hand against any should be shut out of Europe, Asia other man for any reason. Pence and Africa.
supreme Ar irrevocable. Detalls are given of the immense was Non-violenc was the onu thing material al received by the Nazis he became violent about.
from Russia during the period our country was fighting for its life.
But perhaps the document that gives rise to the most bitter feelings
He was a mystir and a mystery, a trable-maker and a pacifist,
Although Hindu orthodoxy forbids the crossing of oceans. young Gandhi went to England in 1888, was called to the Bar and as he wrily admitted years top-hat nud Inter-bought tried to learn the one-step.
He went to London for the thorn in the side of Viceroys, who South Africa started him. For Round Table Conference of nevertheless went to great lengths to is the telegrain set by the German 20 years after 1893 he stayed 1932. London smiled a little at get him to dinner. fie took on the Ambassador in Moscow, reporting to has ever Bertin how Mr Molotov had express- there, giving up a busy legal the bizarre figure in the d'hoti, greatest Empire history
known and bent it. He was human cd his warm congratulations to the practice to champion the in- who would break up any com- and irascible and a taskmaster, and Nazi Government on "the splendi of the German armed is the eagle on the new dians there, founding farm mittee by squatting down to perhaps as near a saint as any man success
colonies, propagating the gospel prayer halfway through, if it has ever been.
Today he is a handful of ashes, This after France had been crush- And in were time for prayer-or for of the simple virtues.
and that; of all his aspects, is the fed and our army driven from Dun- Has he gone Communist? Ite 1914 he came home to begin the diversion,
hardest one to believe.
kirki has dropped the Nazi swastika he; held on the post-Anschluss coins. Instead he now clutches with his right claw and
be
DOGEY
Austrian coins pictured here.
tives to disregard all commen- A WEAKNESS of our Foreign
Service is the
taries on the Bulgaro-Rumanian diplomats to contine their contacts tendency of treaty, and confine themselves to the official and socialite circles strictly to what was in the text. of the countries to which they are Dimitrov himself said! he'l accredited. never said it.
MORE
His shadow
Diplomats for that if they ment Ooposition leaders they DRY he suspected of intrigue.
But if it were part of our envoys normal routine to see Opposition leaders as well as Cabinet Ministers
[ORE important even than the rocket was the revolu- tion in the Bulgarian Politburo would cease to arouse suspicion.
the real rulers of the country.
seven.
und under-secretaries, such meetings
Teheran spent two hours
#sickle hammer
heels to make the Soviet Emblem. in his left. He has only to click his
But the bird is no Bolshie all the same. Long before Nazis or Rus- slans occupled Austria the republi- j can engle clutched his hammer and his sickle.
He Is just a reactionary old bird harking back to the past.
☆ Mixed grill ⭑
.By Moscow's orders its size was with Rustan, the chief of the Left-
cut down by half, from 14 to wing trade unions, and six of his PRITISH! Arms whose factories and for associates. Netther Rustan nor coal mines have been nition- any of the allier men present had members ever met and talked things over the Fabour attache of the behold with
British Embassy. All sak! they would be delighted to meet him.
Bagdad I spent an evening None of as secretary-general. But he with Opposition lenders.
men had met anyone from
And of the seven of the new Politburo, five are Soviet citizens.
In Dimitrov is its nominal hend
these
has been given an "adviser" the British Embassy for the past General George Damyanov, late six months.
of the Soviet Army, and one of Now one of them, Mohammed the Soviet commanders during Kubba, leader of the Independence the siege of Leningrad,
Party, has become Minister of Sup- ply in the now Cabinet, and no Damyanov is n Soviet citizen doubt our representatives will be as well as a Bulgarian citizen, entertaining him.
Had they met tum bofore,
the
He has the real power. It will opposition revolt against the new be he in future who passes Anglo-Iraq
treaty would have Moscow's wishes and instruc- caused less surprise in Whitehall, tions to Dimitrov. And it is Damyanov who commuinds the
Sore points
army, the militin, the secret police, and the secret prisons. NE of the Irngis' bilterest com- phunts was that the Anglo-Iraq "It is he who orders the arrests, treaty gives Britain Arol refusal of
alised in Czechoslovakia are still waiting for the Czechs in pay enm- pensation. But the Czechs put up bne pretext after another, to vold payment.
#1
Now these firms have received nine-page decùment asking them to declare their assets for the Czech capital levy. Antong assets subject to the levy-30 percent, of the value are "claims to compensation for antionalised property...."
On the back page of the document
is-an Invitation. "Czechoslovakia," It says, "is inviting you. Will you ent and drink well? Try our ham, our Pilsen beer, our cheese, fruit and the Czech cuisine! Are you in- terested in industry? Visit our foundries and coal mines, our 10- dustrial enterprises, ten eur.products of glass, porcelain, leather and wood, our machines, textiles and tionery."
-Impit.
Btn-
forces."
NOTICE ARMY RATIONS
TO BE CUT
"All members of H.M. Forces wot wish to continue marching on thoir stummicks must in future "ding out at the Ritz."--