OCCASIONAL NOTE

There is little that is essentially new in the appeal recently addressed to the British community by Mr. T.C. Roy, Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Bengal, and reported elsewhere, but what there is put in a very cogent manner. Cooperation has frequently been hailed as the main hope of the Indian masses, and Europeans in this country have been as frequently invited to support it, but Mr. Roy has shrewdly taken advantage of the recent upheaval in Calcutta against the grinding policy of landlords to point the moral of co-operation and drive it right home to the individual. It is one thing to be asked to lend the support of one’s countenance to a beneficent movement, and it is quite another thing to realise that one’s own interests are intimately bound up with it. Mr. Roy, striking while the iron is red-hot, points out that the remedy for landlord extortion, as for every other kind of economic tyranny, is co-operation, and he proceeds to draw the natural inference from the community of interests which has been set up in Calcutta between Britons and Indians who have long groaned under the landlord monopoly. “If we can feel the identity of our interest in regard to house rent,” he inquires, “why can we not feel it as far as the ordinary necessaries of life are concerned?”

JAMSHEDPUR STRIKE

KHARAGPUR, MAR 16

The Jamshedpur strike situation assumed a serious turn as a result of vigorous picketing on Saturday night. On Sunday the mob attempted to obstruct Indian recruits by stopping Mr. Sawday’s motor car, which injured a striker. The excited men then pelted stones at the motor car. The crowd was surrounded by soldiers and dispersed. On Sunday afternoon strikers armed with lathies attended the Juguselai meeting and mounted police and railway police were brought out to preserve order. Yesterday morning an excited crowd assembled and at nine o’clock the military had to open fire, the casualties being about fifteen. The Bengal-Nagpur Railway authorities have made arrangements to protect Tatanagar station and the line.

BIG JUTE FIRE

At 2 P.M. on Tuesday, information reached the Central Fire Brigade of a fire at the Ocean Jute Press at Chitpore. The Acting Chief Officer Mr. Jarrett, with two motors from headquarters and two steamers from the Chitpore Fire Station proceeded to the scene of the outbreak, and found the centre godown, which is a two-storeyed pucca building in flames. Both floors were packed with bales of jute and by the time the Brigade arrived the fire had got a good hold. Mr. Jarrett, with Engineers Hawkins took up their position and had been carrying out operations for about half-an-hour when a huge wall on the west of the verandah began to crack and showed signs of collapsing. Shortly after the whole godown collapsed and all the Brigade could do was to prevent the fire spreading. The damage is said to amount to over 4 lakhs of rupees.

POSED AS A WIZARD

Mr. C.C. Gupta, Deputy Magistrate of Serampore, has concluded the hearing of the case in which an Ooriya was prosecuted for cheating four persons out of Rs 150. In the first case he posed as a mahajan’s man and demanded dues from one Annada Nayak, who paid him Rs 30. He next went to Madhu Mali and introduced himself as a wizard saying that he possessed supernatural powers and would perform a pujah by which he would be able to improve his position. The accused got Rs 50 from Madhu and decamped. In this way the accused cheated two other persons. Accused was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years and a half, and a fine of Rs 200, or one year more in the first two cases. The other two cases are still pending.

CO-OPERATION IN INDIA

Under the auspices of the Bengal CoOperative Organisation Society, Mr. T.C. Roy, Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Bengal, delivered an address on “Co-operation in the new order” at the Institute Hall a few days ago under the presidency of the Hon. Mr. J.G. Cumming. In concluding his lecture, Mr. Roy said, lastly, I would appeal to the European community of India to join this national movement. India has in the past been the fighting ground of races, but the new order has come to fulfill his destiny to be their meeting place, and contains within it the promise of making his a land of concord and harmony. A considerable section of the European community is as much subject to exploitation as the Indians themselves