THE ALLAHABAD DISTURBANCE

Lahore, Wednesday, October 15, 1924

WE have hitherto purposely refrained from making any comment upon the Allahabad riots, except by way of expressing the grief which all patriotic Indians must feel at the occurrence of these disgraceful incidents on the very morrow of the Unity Conference. The reason was partly that so far as it rested with ourselves we did not want that the good work begun by the Conference should be interfered with, and partly that we knew that any comments that we might make would serve no useful purpose while the riots were still there and might conceivably do harm. Now that the riots are virtually over, and whatever harm they could do to the general cause of unity which the Delhi Conference tried to further has already been done, it is no longer necessary to maintain absolute silence. Unfortunately, the material at our disposal for making any comments that might appear profitable to us is extremely meagre. On the most vital of all points, namely, the immediate origin and cause of the trouble, we know next to nothing. Both the Associated Press in its latest telegram and the Commissioner in his report express their inability to throw any light on this important point. “The real cause of the trouble,” says the former, “Is still a mystery, but it can only be put down in the work of law class hooligans.” “It is not known,” says the latter, “what was the spark which started the conflagration, but between 7 and 8 on the evening of October 7 sporadic assaults occurred in the various parts of the city.” Nor are the local newspapers more helpful.