The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 28, 1924, Page 9

Will the Labor Government Stand for This? STITUTE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY. |as delegate, he proclaimed himself as an Indian Communist and urged the organization. of and political ends. he. has devoted himself to the organ- By EVELYN ROY. fens British Indian government ig perpetuating the best traditions of autocratic despotism as practiced under the defunct Russian Czardom. And the exercise of this unlimited autocracy is backed up by the strength and*power of the Labor Gov- ernment in Britain, which thru Par- liament and the Secretary of State for India, exercises ultimate control over the destinies: df 320,000,000 politically disabled subjects of His Majesty, the King Emperor. The latest example of governmental persecution in India, (always excepting ihe chronic ar- rests, convictions and imprisonment, or imprisonment without conviction which have become a matter of course in the daily governance of the country) is the trial now proceeding at Cawnpore against eight persons under Section 121A of the Indian pen- al code, which reads as follows: 121. Whoever wages war against the Queen or attempts to wage such war or abets the waging of such war shall be punished with death or trans- portation fér life and shall forfeit all his property. 121A. Whoever, within or without British India, conspires to commit any of the offenses punishable by Sec- tion 121, or to deprive the Queen of the sovereignty of British Ifdia or of any part thereof, or conspires to over- awe, by means of criminal force or show of criminal ferce the Govern- ment or any local government, shall be punished with transportation for life or any shorter term, or with im- prisonment of either description which may extend to ten years. The charge, as may be seen, is a serious one, usually reserved for of- fenders of the first-rank who have been implicated in acts of terrorism or concrete attempts to overthrow the vernment by force of arms. In the case of the eight persons now under trial in Cawnpore, the application of this charge is a little unusual, in that it is based, NOT UPON “ANY TER- RORISTIC ACT NOR PLOT OF ARMED FORCE, BUT UPON THE ATTEMPTS OF CERTAIN INDIVID- UALS TO ORGANIZE THE INDIAN WORKERS AND PEASANTS INTO A POLITICAL PARTY OF THEIR OWN TO BRING ABOUT A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT WHICH WILL IMPROVE THEIR PRESENT ECO- NOMIC CONDITION. In other words, the charge of “conspiracy against the sovereignity of the King-Emperor” is brought against eight people pro- fessing to be socialists or commun- ists, who have advanced the program of socialism for the projected emanci- pation of the Indian working class. It is as tho a Magistrate’s Court in Great Britain were to descend upon the leading members of the Labor Party, the, I. L. P. and the Cqmmun- ist Party, and summarily imprison them, pending trial, for conspiracy to bring about the Social Revolution which all include in their programs. FOR THE EIGHT ACCUSED AT CAWNPORE HAVE DONE NOTH- ING WHICH LAYS THEM OPEN TO CONVICTION EXCEPT TO ADVO- CATE THE ORGANIZATION. OF A POLITICAL MASS PARTY OF THE INDIAN WORKING CLASS UNDER AN ECONOMIC PROGRAM CALL- ING FOR THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EMANCIPATION OF THE INDIAN PROLETARIAT AND PEASANTRY. The preliminary hearings have been concluded and the accused committed for trial at the Séssions on April 22. In this preliminary hearing the fol- lowing accusations were lodged on be- half of the Crown, with the Director of the Intelligence Department as Chief Witness: . “The accused are charged under Section 121A with conspiracy to es- tablish a branch organization of the Communist International thruout Brit- ish India with object to deprive the King Emperor of the sovereignty of British India. It is alleged on behalf of thé prosecution that they decided to make use of the association of workers and ‘peasants or People’s Party under the leadership of the ac- cused, for securing complete separa- tion of India from Imperialistic Brit- ain by violent revolution, with an eco- nomic program of stich character as to attract both peasai and workers. It is further steged tha the organ- ization was to have both“a legal and, an illegal basis, and>atterhpt was to be made to secure control of the In- dian National Congress, The con- spiracy (it is further alleged) was to be financed by the revolutionary or- ganization in Russia, and an ggree- ment constituting a conspiracy was arrived at by means of letters writ- ten by the accused to one another from various places, one of which was Cawnpore. It is also alleged that the accused introduced and girculated in- to British India prescribed néwspa- pers, pamphlets and circulars of a revohitionary character.” As a proof of these allegations, six- ty out of eighty intercepted letters al- leged to have been signed by Mana- bendra Nath Roy were presented, either.in manuscript or photograph, with the following explanation by Col. Kaye on cr. ex. Information was received by the government that some persons whom the latter considered as Indian revolutionaries from Europe called a meeting in 1921, at Moscow, with a view to making arrangements for the furtherance of Bolshevik pro- But the question that arises to one’s mind instantaneously is this: WiLL THE BRITISH LABOR GOVERN- MENT, ITSELF A WORKING CLASS PARTY ORGANIZED FOR. POLITI- CAL AND ECONOMIC ENDS, AND AFFILIATED TO AN _ INTERNA- TIONAL WORKING CLASS MOVE- MENT, STAND FOR THIS REVIVAL OF CZARIST AUTOCRACY? WILL THE VARIOUS WORKING CLASS PARTIES OF BRITAIN AND THE EMPIRE, WHETHER CALLING THEMSELVES LABOR, SOCIALIST OR COMMUNIST, ALLOW THIS AT- TEMPT TO CRUSH THE. RISING PROLETARIAN MOVEMENT IN IN- DIA TO SUCCEED? What are the facts of the case, so carefully veiled in the censorship which permits only the barest details of this trial to be published in Brit- ain? ap M. N. Roy is one of the founders of the Communist Party of India, es- tablished in October, 1920, as an open organization with a program which has been given to the world, embody- ing the minimum clauses of Socialism adapted to present-day Indian condi- tions, and presented before the 36th From a Speech by MacDonald: “Not every Christian is a Socialist, but every Socialist is a Christian.” Jesus Christ—King of England—MacDonald. paganda. Finally one M. N. Roy was selected as the leader of the organiza- tion. As a result of this information, Government authorized the stoppage, interception and examination of post- al letters addressed to certain per- sons. List of such persons was add- ed to from time to time, The Govern- ment of India ordered prohibition of certain newspapers and pamphlets un- der the Sea Customs Act. In course of time a number of letters, newspa~- pers and circu were obtained, some originals, some copies and some photographs of originals which were produced as exhibits.” So much for the charge and evi- dence, which speaks for itself, and for the nature of British rule’ in India. IT IS ONLY IN BRITISH INDIA. THA’ SUCH A TRIAL (AN BE HELD O SUCH A CHARGE; THAT THH OR- GANIZATION OF WORKING CLASS PARTIES FOR POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL ENDS, AND THE IN- TERNATIONAL AFFILIATION OF SUCH PARTIES TO THE WORLD PROLETARIAN MOVEMENT CON- Indian National Congress which met at Ahmedabad in 1921. He is the founder and Chief Editor of the “Van- guard,” the organ of the Communist Party of India, which tho prohibited in India, circulates freely in other parts of the British Empire. He is the author of several books and pam- phiets, equally prohibited and equally allowed, and of constant articles in the European and Indian press on In- dian political, economic and social conditions, -in which his views, his program and his tactics are openly exposed, Mr. M. Singaravelu Chettiar is a venerable lawyer of over™sixty years of age, a native of Madras, a follower of Mr. Ghandi who gave up his law- practice in conformity with the man- date of Non-Co-operation in 1921. He ig a prominent Congressman, held in high respect and esteem by his coun- and active in the cause of la- bor since the foundation of the All- India Trade Union Congress in 1921. In the Gaya session of the Indian National Congress, which he attended labor for econofnic Since that time, ization of “The Labor and Kishan Party of Hindusthan,” with an open program and statues calling for a minimum Socialist program, and to the publication of the legal organ of that party, “The Labor. and Kishan Gazette.” of his creed is non-violent, non-co-op- eration applied to the domain of work- The proclaimed principle ing class agitation and organization, in conformity with the resolution adopted to that effect by the Indian National Congress at Gaya, which ap- pointed a Committee for Labor Or- ganization of which he is a member. He holds various other public posts. Mr. S. R. Dange, of Bombay, is a young man under thirty, Editor of “The Socialist,” a weekly journal de- voted to the propagation of theoretical Marxism and to the ideas of Birth Control and various other radical movements well within the law of British India. He is one of the or- ganizers and founders of the Social Democratic Club of Bombay, and au- thor of several books and pamphlets, among them a brochure entitled “Gan- dhi versus Lenin.” He too was a Congressman and WNon-Co-operator, well-known to his province and re- spected for his intelligence, ability and integrity to principle. Of the other accused, one, Mr. R. L. Sharma, is a political refugee in French India, previously identified with the nationalist movement before forced to fly the country and seek shelter from British persecution on alien soil, where he has remained for nearly fourteen years; three others, Maula Baksh, Muzaffar Ahmed, and Ahmad Nalin Das Gupta have been languishing in prison without trial or charge for an indeterminate period until suddenly hauled out in connec- tion with the present proceedings, while the last, Ghulan Hossain, is a respected Professor of Lahore who has won the esteem of his fellows dur- ing his professional career, and is the author of several books on Social and Economic subjects, as well as former editor of a monthly theoretical jour- nal devoted to the ideas of Marx. ‘This in brief, is the character"of the Victims of the present attempt to choke all efforts in behalf of the In- dian working-class towards political and economic betterment, under the vulgar charge of “conspiracy.” For the crime of having studied, thought and wrote about the conditions of the Indian proletariat and peasantry, and for having advocated various ways and means for their emancipa- tion, (for the accused were not united into a single group, nor did they rep- resent a single tendency or organized movement), these eight individuals are to be condemned, undefended, to the maximum penalty of the law. IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT NO LAW, YER HAS COME FORWARD TO DE- FEND THEIR CASE,—THE FIRST CASE ON RECORD IN THE INDIAN COURTS AGAINST THE DEFEND- ERS OF THE INDIAN WORKING CLASS. So little is the true nature and gravity of the issue understood in India, that the cause ofthe Indian masses will be allowed to go by de- fault, on a snap judgment and trumped-up evidence, and charge that could not be substantiated in a court of law in any other part of the Em- pire. WILL THE BRITISH GOVERN, MENT AND THE BRITISH PROLE- TARIAT PERMIT THIS EMANCIPA- TION MOVEMENT OF THE INDIAN MASSES TO BE WIPED OUT BY THE METHODS OF CZARIST AUTO- CRACY? THE FATE OF THREE HUNDRED MILLION WORKERS AND PEASANTS OF INDIA HANGS ON THEIR REPLY. Res. 1632 8. Trumbull Ave. Phone Rockwell 5050 MORDECAI SHULMAN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW - 701 Association Building 19 S, La Salle Street CHICAGO Dearborn 8657 Central 4945-4947 Send in that Subscription Today.