OCCASIONAL NOTE

A superficial view of the report of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies in Madras during 1917-18 would suggest that an industrial renaissance was in progress in the Southern Presidency. The number of “companies” registered was 18, or twice the average of the three years 1914 to 1917. Unfortunately half the total consisted of niddhies, and inasmuch as a Madras Niddhi Act is in contemplation it may be taken for granted that the provincial authorities do not view the development of this branch of industry with approval. In the case of one niddhie the object is stated to be the carrying on of “the business of banking in one or more forms, such as the auction system, koor chit system and kulukku system, and such other ways of banking as are allowable by law in India.”

The Registrar states that the sole members are the two or three organisers who subscribe the memorandum of association. The chit-holders have no voice in the management and the Registrar has no means of knowing what regulations govern the “chit” system. Probably a niddhie is often another organisation of that Indian capacity for financial swindling which at one time usually took the form of bogus insurance societies. Of the 26 “companies” struck off the register last year in Madras no fewer than 11 were niddhies. The province now possesses only three insurance companies of the local type, and possibly before long the niddhie will have become as rare.

TILAK

Bombay, July 22

The Government has been pleased to grant permission to Mr. Tilak and his legal adviser to proceed to England solely for the purpose of his case on giving an undertaking that they will abstain from any kind of political agitation there. On reaching England Mr. Tilak has, however, reserved to himself the right to move the Home Government for the cancellation or modification of the conditions imposed upon him. He intends to proceed to England by the middle of September as his case is likely to come on for hearing in November next after the long vacation.

BRITISH ALERT

A British communiqué says: Minor operations in the Hebuterne sector were continued with success. Our pressure compelled the enemy to withdraw from Rossignol wood, between Hebuterne and Bucquoy. This important local feature is now in our possession. We followed up the enemy, who suffered a number of casualties. The total captures at Meteren were 455 prisoners, ten trench mortars and fifty machine-guns. Our aeroplanes on Friday dropped seventeen tons of bombs on hostile dumps, railway stations and aerodromes. Our aviators on one occasion dropped bombs on aerodromes from a height of between 100 and 500 feet. One pilot landed at an aerodrome and machine-gunned the hangars before rising.