OCCASIONAL NOTE

The comments which the leading extremist and the leading moderate newspaper respectively of Calcutta have seen fit to make upon the supersession of the Hooghly-Chinsura Municipality, afford ample justification for the doubt which has frequently been thrown upon the political honesty of some Indian journalists. The Hooghly-Chinsura and Burdwan municipalities have been superseded for conduct which, on the face of the Bengal Government’s Resolutions, condemns them as utterly and inexcusably incompetent. Their incompetence from being a byword had become a scandal, and, finally, in the view of the Government, had developed into a serious menace to the public health.

The Bengal Government are the last administration in India to press with undue severity upon any local self-governing body, but if intervention is not called for when a municipality becomes insolvent, after incurring responsibility for grave epidemics as the result of deliberate and culpable mismanagement of the water supply, what is the use of a Government at all? The attempt which has been made simultaneously in both these newspapers to discredit the action and motives of the Government, and to exhibit the erring municipalities in the light of martyrs in the cause of self-government, is as significant a commentary upon the prospects of constitutional change in Bengal as the collapse of municipal government in these two centres itself. The Bengali press has had its chance to win the respect of its critics by consenting for once to look facts in the face, and admitting that municipal misfeasance, even when the culprits are Bengalis, is reprehensible.

ALLEGED GANG OF DACOITS

On Thursday night Inspector H.P. Roy of the Bengal C.I.D., assisted by some officers of the Alipore Detective police, cleverly arrested seven out of a gang of eight up-countrymen who are reported to be responsible for half-a-dozen dacoities recently committed in villages along the railway line between Sealdah and Naihati stations. The gang left Sealdah by passenger trains on Thursday evening in three batches, and got down at Khardah, Dum Dum Junction and Dum Dum Cantonment stations, where they were arrested, and daggers and house-breaking implements were found in their possession. Ganga Jeshwara, who, when arrested at Basirhat station, along with 13 others, two years ago had a revolver, and was sentenced at the Jorabagan Police Court to one year’s rigorous imprisonment, is stated to be the leader of the gang in custody. He made a desperate attempt to escape from Khardah station, but did not succeed. One man alone managed to escape, and he is stated to be armed with a pistol. The accused were placed to Friday before the Police Magistrate of Sealdah and remanded to custody.

REMARKABLE CASE AT BANGKOK

The Bangkok International Court has heard a lengthy case in which the Privy Purse Department sued the Chartered Bank for the return of 9,000 ticals of golds in bars worth 315,000 ticals which had been deposited by Prince Sanprasart in security for an overdraft. It was alleged that the gold was Crown property. After several days’ hearing the plaintiff withdrew the case and agreed to pay costs to defendants, and counsel’s fee fixed at 800 ticals. In the course of evidence it was alleged, that the Prince received the gold from the Privy Purse to make a shrine and failed to account for more than a small quantity. The Prince admitted that he was owing gold to the King but said that none of the gold in question in the Chartered Bank belonged to the King. He had been a partner in a goldsmith’s business. He was an uncle of the King. When the Court visited the Bank to inspect the gold the Prince, who had been notified, did not attend and the Bank Manager declined to exhibit the gold for inspection without the consent of the person who deposited it. At the next sitting the case was withdrawn.

TAXI CAB DACOITY IN RANGOON

A daring taxi-cab dacoity was committed at dusk just outside the Rangoon Cantonment, two women being assaulted by men who got out of a taxi and ransacked a house. The dacoits took over Rs 3,000 and escaped in the car. Luckily a neighbour had noticed the number of the car, which was at once traced and identified as a public taxi. The driver gave a description of the men who had hired him and within a couple of hours of the dacoity two of the men were arrested and identified. Two others are being searched for. The property has not been recovered. The women were struck on the head with the butt of a gun and were removed to hospital. The occurrence took place within a short distance of a police station. All the men were Burmese as also the injured women.