OCCASIONAL NOTE

Mr. Vincent Smith, “the historian of India,” contributes to the July number of History a useful article on “Indian History” and the methods of writing it. While he accords generous recognition to many works which have appeared of recent years he utters a warning against “the strong tendency to see the past of India through rose-coloured spectacles which characterises all recent history books written by Indians and some written by Europeans.” Every interesting chapter of Indian history, says Mr. Vincent Smith, has become a matter of polemics, and the temptation to avoid offence to one section or other of opinion interferes seriously with the imperative obligation of the honest historian to present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth without fear or favour. It would, indeed, be deplorable if the sentimentality which has all but banished reality from Indian politics and is affecting the administration of the country were permitted also to impair the work of serious historians. An effort to convert the episode of the Black Hole into a mere passage of contemporary fiction was prevented at the outset by the production of chapter and verse from contemporary records. It might be more difficult to defeat parallel efforts to establish as historical truth such myths as that Indian science and industry led the world until the arrival of the last of the foreign races.

KURDISTAN RISING

ALLAHABAD, AUG 27

The Pioneer learns from Mesopotamia that following on the defeat and capture of Sheikh Mahmud in June last and the pacification of south Kurdistan by the operations of mobile columns throughout the area, a rising occurred on the 16th July in central Kurdistan. The British political officer and his assistants were murdered at Amadia and the Christian inhabitants of the valley were massacred and their villages looted. A force was concentrated at the most forward British outpost, 16 miles from Amadia, by the end of July. After a difficult night march through mountainous country, this force surrounded the hostile village of Bamurni at dawn on the 1st of August. After two hours’ resistance the village surrendered, having suffered 17 killed and 6 wounded. Since then the force has been engaged in sweeping the valley, no further opposition being met with since the first action.

THE INDIAN ARMY REFORM COMMITTEE

ALLAHABAD, AUG 27

The whole subject of the military organisation of the Indian Empire is to be thoroughly considered and deliberated upon by the Reform Committee just set up by Government, and of which Lord Esher is to be president. The Committee is to inquire into all the details of administration and organisation of the army in India. The task will doubtless occupy them for several months. Later they will proceed to India to consider all details of this very complex subject on the spot. The appointment of the committee, of course, indicates that the Government is not satisfied with things military as they now are in India, and has decided to carry out drastic changes in the near future. The commission is certainly a fully representative one and many of those who are on it are men who have had wide experience of Indian affairs.

RAJBARI WATER WORKS

His Excellency the Governor of Bengal will arrive at Rajbari, the headquarters of the Goalundo sub-division, on Saturday at 5-45 P.M., to open the Rajbari water works which are now complete and ready for the supply of filtered water through street hydrants to Rajbari town. The total estimated cost of the scheme was about Rs 55,000 of which the District Board of Faridput paid Rs 11,000, Government contribution in 1917-18 Rs 2,000, and in 1918-19 Rs 12,000, together with a promise of a further contribution of Rs 4,000 during the current year. The balance has been met by donations of local people. The installation will be in charge of the Rajbari Union Committee, which has also undertaken to maintain it.

CHAIBASSA MURDER CHARGE

The Deputy Commissioner of Chaibassa recently committed to the sessions of the Patna High Court a case in which S.R. Giles, Permanent Way Inspector of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, at Rowlkela, claiming to be a British-born subject, stands charged under section 302, I.P.C., with having murdered with an axe, his timekeeper, Nagendra Nath Das Gupta, on the night of July 28. The dead body of the deceased being found on the railway line next morning, it was at first reported to the Government Railway Police that the case was one relating to a train accident, but investigation pointed to the fact that murder had been committe