BY ‘RAVI’

The Indian periodicals for September contain few articles of note. Mr. Rajendra Prasad writes in The Modern Review on the crisis in the sugar-cane industry of U. P. and Bihar. The price per maund of sugar-cane fixed by the Government has been ruinous to the cultivator and if the 1937-38 crop is to be crushed next season, immediate action must be taken by the authorities in the two Provinces. The raising of prices alone may not be enough; the question of economic utilisation of bye-products, especially of molasses, will have to be carefully investigated. Mr. K. V. Giri in The Indian Review suggests the various uses to which molasses can be put. At present molasses are used as fuel. But other industrial uses worthy of consideration seem to be road surfacing, acetic acid manufacture and production of power alcohol. Also Prof. Dhar’s investigations have shown that molasses can be used to increase the nitrogen content of the Indian soil.

Clearly, further experiments have to be carried on in chemical and other industries. But this would mean more money and more scholarships. The deplorable lack of the latter is well pointed out in an article by ‘Scientificus’ to which prominence is given in The Modern Review. The Rockefeller FoundatIon grants a few scholarships to India but only in medicine. The Carnegie Corporation has only recently included Indians among its scholars. The 1851 Exhibition Scholarships have hardly been available to Indians before 1935, although India was responsible for one-third of the total funds originally raised for the purpose. As regards the various Tata Charities, "it is not probably known in this country that the Tatas control very big charities out of which they award a large number of scholarships to foreign scholars and to foreign research and educational institutions. Only a microscopic part comes to India." Even the Deutsche Akademie has been more generous. Within the last eight years, more than a hundred Indians have been enabled to proceed to Germany.

The Congress Governments should take the matter on hand and further the cause of science and industry in this country. But unless the Central Government is in the hands of the Congress, and unless there is greater co-operation between India and the other countries in matters political and economic, not much headway can be made. The absence of co-operation even within the British Commonwealth of Nations is clearly shown by the articles in the current Empire number of International Affairs. The positions and the policies of the Dominions and India are excellently analysed by various writers. Canada appears to have more in common with America than with Great Britain. Australia is less concerned with Imperial problems than with the problems of the Pacific. South Africa is very nationalist and anti-German. New Zealand alone thinks in terms of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. India has no voice at all and is cold-shouldered by all alike. On one point, however, the members of the Commonwealth seem to agree: that the League should be revived and collective security should become real. They also insist that the Peace Treaties should be knocked out of the Covenant.

Lord Lytton makes the same point in The Fortnightly. ‘Peaceful change’ can be brought about by giving effect to Article 19 and drawing up a new Peace Treaty on a footing of equality. A balance must be maintained between the ‘have’ and the ‘have-not’ Powers by examining the claims of the latter in respect of colonIes and raw materials, territorial revision and minority rights. Europe could then be saved from drifting into a state of anarchy and warring alliances.

But it would be an over-simplification of facts to suggest that the ‘have-not’ Powers have any necessary identity of interests or that Europe is divided into ideological camps. Sir Arthur Willert writes in the same number of The Fortnightly: "The real enemy to our peace of mind is not Fascism or Communism but the reappearance of the old balance of power which has bedevilled the Continent." "One need not travel far in Europe to realise that people are much less worried by Communism and Fascism than they are afraid of the States where the nations happen to profess these creeds." In fact, Germany, Italy and Russia are all manoeuvring only for position. Hitler fulminates against Bolshevism but he has renewed the Treaty of Rapallo between Russia and Germany. Stalin becomes more and more dictatorial and is eliminating his leading Jews. The Army chiefs in both countries seem to favour a closer understanding. On the other hand, Italo-German co-operation is not so definite as the recent fraternising of the Fascist Leaders suggests. Germany has contempt for Italy’s military power as seen in Spain; Italy distrusts Nazi mysticism and pan-Germanism. Germany remembers Italian betrayal in 1915; Italy views with alarm German incursions into the Balkan peninsula.

Italy and Germany display a negative unity, not a positive co-operation. An inside view of both the totalitarian States reveals discord and explosive restlessness. N. P. Macdonald analyses in The Fortnightly the internal situation in Germany. Spies are active everywhere, in houses and hotels, in towns and villages. Intrigue is rife in Berlin and Munich. Callow youths have been jockeyed into responsible positions. The Army is becoming increasingly hostile to the regime. The Navy is politically an uncertain force. The churches, Catholic as well as Protestant, have declared war on Hitler. And the middle and lower classes still contain large and very active Communist elements. The hammer and the sickle have been known even to adorn the walls inside Krupps’.

In Italy, as articles quoted in The World Review show, the populations in South Tyrol and Istria are unreliable. Mussolini has become unpopular on account of his subservience to Hitler. Italian reverses in Spain have caused a great revulsion of feeling against intervention. And Italian capitalists have been severely hit by the rise of agricultural prices which have released the Danubian States from their clutches. Italy’s economic position is approaching the point of collapse and the Duce is less disposed to undertake any commitments in Europe. There will be less Italian or German activity in the Balkan peninsula.

Hungary is in fact acting as a brake on Fascist and Nazi ambitions. Under General Gombos she was violently nationalist and revisionist and made common cause with Italy and Germany. But now she plays on the soft pedal. She realises, with Bismarck, that fruits do not ripen quicker if you hold a lamp to them. An interesting article in The Contemporary describes well the new tendencies in Hungary. Dr. Darayani, the new Prime Minister is a statesman. There is fellow feeling now between the Opposition and the Government. The Electoral Law has been reformed. There is less talk of Magyar rights and more of co-operation with Czechoslovakia. Germany is still regarded as the great market for Hungarian raw produce but the Hungarians realise that a Nazi Austria would be as distasteful to them as the old empire was. Hungary is thus moving towards a closer understanding with the France-Russia-Czechoslovak group.

This is the cue, then, for the democratic Powers to take the initiative in international affairs and bring the world back to habits of peace. Vernon Bartlett in The World Review thinks that the dangers of war are diminishing and that there is reason for immediate optimism. "We (the British) are gradually beginning to realise that we need not base our policy on panic." But democratic diplomacy seems still to be spineless in the extreme. Neither the problem of Spain nor that of Palestine, both in essence problems of the Mediterranean, have been solved yet. At either end of that sea, the fires are smouldering.

In Spain the policy of non-intervention has only made that country safer for Fascist intervention. Stephen Heald draws up in The Fortnightly a record of that policy since its inception; it is a record of shame and distress. "Non-intervention is a policy, not a status recognized by international law, such as neutrality." It has hamstrung the Government forces in their task of defence by denying them belligerent rights. It has not prevented ‘volunteers’ from crossing into Spain ‘at their own risk.’ Non-intervention has only prolonged the struggle and brought a general war nearer than otherwise. After a long year of murderous strife there is still a ‘front’ in Spain. The position now is admirably summed up by a writer in The Contemporary: "The war has come to a stage when the unsuccessful attack becomes, owing to its cost, in reality a defeat." Madrid is holding out and the insurgents are concentrating on a final offensive against it. But there is less unity now among them than among the Government troops. The Germans and Italians are very unpopular. The Falangists have disappeared mysteriously from the ranks of the rebels. Differences have become acute over the question of restoring the monarchy. General Miaja of the Government forces thinks that time is on his side. Will the democratic countries help him by putting an end to the farce of non-intervention? Or will Great Britain continue to wobble till Franco overruns the whole peninsula and then try to outbid others in giving him financial help?

Meanwhile at the Near Eastern end of the Mediterranean, in Palestine, the tension is rising between the Jews and the Arabs. The World Zionist Congress at Basle condemned Partition as a cruel blow to Jewish dreams of a National Home. Prof. Norman Bentwich in The Contemporary suggests that cantonisation can be tried in Palestine before Partition is enforced. The Arabs on the other hand, are demanding the whole pound of flesh, now that nine-tenths of their original demands have been satisfied. Arab leaders and friends are advising caution and the acceptance of Partition. St. John Philby says in the same number of The Contemporary that the real issue for the Arabs is the old factor of internal discord. The Amir of Trans-Jordan would be the chief beneficiary under the Partition and so all the other Moslem rulers are hostile to him. Mr. Philby also writes that the Holy Cities could be put under the control of an international commission. "If permanent peace in Palestine is still the objective of all concerned, the British Government should have no qualms in relinquishing the doubtful strategic advantages of a truncated mandate."

Vigorous criticism of the Palestine Report from a very different angle comes from Josiah Wedgwood in The Nineteenth Century. He thinks that the Mandate failed because the British Government in Palestine was pro-Arab and ‘sabotaged’ British policy. "A culpably weak Government has caused the trouble to grow and violence to flourish. What a culpably weak Government has done, a strong Government can undo. The Mandate can still be carried through to peace and not to war; and our good name can be saved."

One of the minor problems the British Government has to settle in the Near East is the incitement to disaffection caused by secret Italian broadcasting stations. The excitable Bedouin has been told again and again that Mussolini is the liberator of the Moslem peoples. This war in the ether against Great Britain and France has been carried on for a long time. The danger of such activities has been realised in England, as can be seen in the personal letters which passed between the heads of the British and Italian Governments. It is to be hoped that the Cairo Conference of 1938 would formulate international rules for broadcasting. Agreements of such a nature are essential for the peaceful life of nations. The fight for peace has to be waged on several fronts, no less in the world of thought than on the field of battle. Elizabeth Wiskemann writing in The Nineteenth Century says how important the teaching of the young has become and how necessary it is to impart the right ideas. Many of the teachers in France have realised this and the text-books they use appear to be admirable. Ernest Lavisse, the famous historian, has been responsible for the plan and the production of most of these books. In one of them he writes, after telling the reader to be proud of France. "But you will not be arrogant. You will not wish to dominate or humiliate other nations. War is a terrible scourge; you will detest it, and you will work in your turn….. to make France prosperous in peace as she was valiant in war." Contrast this with the attitude of some German scholars of the Nazi regime. Wilhelm Rodiger writes in Geschichte, Ziel and Weg: "War, the father of all things, is also our father; it has hammered, chiseled and hardened us into what we are." But not all Germans are like Rodiger. In fact, some German scholars recently met their French colleagues and they agreed on a number of points in the interpretation of historical events. Their deliberations were published early this year. And Herr Hitler himself has proclaimed that nothing should be taught calculated to arouse ill-feeling between the two great countries.

The prospects of peace in Europe appear to be brighter for the moment at least; but in the Far East the Japanese are gaily bombing Shanghai, Canton and Nanking and sinking harmless fishing junks. They are deliberately following a policy of ‘frightfulness.’ They raped Manchuria in 1931; now they want to seize the Northern provinces. These provinces are the richest in China. According to an article in The World Review they produce 55% of China’s wheat, 60% of her cotton, 80% of her coal and 64% of her iron-ore. They form an enormous market and have a plentiful supply of cheap labour. So Japanese imperialism has been ruthless in its drive. But Japan is reckoning without the New China. She is riding towards a fall, says a writer in The Contemporary. China has become rapidly united under the shock of invasion. Marshals Yen Hsi-Shan of Shansi, Chan Hseuh-Liang of Sian and Pai Chung-Hsi of Kwangsi are all one with Chiang Kai-Shek in resolving to resist the invader. "For the first time in Chinese history, the illiterate masses have combined with the intellectuals to stage a revolt." A new alphabet has been introduced and millions now read by it. On the other hand, in Japan discontent is growing apace. 50% of the budget is devoted to the Army and the Navy. Rural debt has risen to the staggering figure of 7,000 million yen. During 1936 there were 2,000 cases of labour strikes. And quite recently the railway and street car workers went on strike at Tokyo and Kobe with the significant slogan, "If our wages are not raised we can but wait for the arrival of the god of death."

Japan may have feet of clay; her hands, however, are of blood and iron. She is the enfant terrible of imperialism and no Western Power can have the temerity to restrain her. The Western Powers look upon her as a bulwark against Communism, while America in spite of her boasted sympathy for China has, as Charles Hodges writes in Current History, a large trade with Japan which she is loth to lose. And so bombing, sniping and murdering, Japan goes her ‘kingly way.’

We quote the following from Vernon Bartlett in The World Review: A German General let himself go on the subject of the war against the churches in Germany. "But," objected a friend, "I did not know you were such a religious man." "I am not," was the reply, "I look at it from the technical point of view and I know that no army which goes into battle without some hope of an after-life will fight well, Hitler’s advisers are allowing him to ruin our raw material."

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