MYMENSINGH HOSPITAL

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – I beg to state that at Mymensingh a big hospital has recently been constructed at a cost of nearly three lakhs of rupees. With a view to further improve the hospital an estimate of Rs 2,50,000 has been prepared. It would have been very difficult to raise this sum; but the unparalleled victory of Great Britain and her allies over Germany presented a good opportunity to the organisers. With this object a representative and influential Victory Memorial Committee, with the District Magistrate as president, was formed and I have much pleasure in informing the public that within the course of four months the Committee have been able to obtain promises of Rs 2,18,000 and they expect to get the balance within the course of the year. The preliminaries for the improvement and additions to the hospital have been taken in hand. When these improvements are completed it will be one of the best hospitals in the Presidency of Bengal.

UMESH CHANDRA CHAKLADARS

Joint Secretary, Victory Memorial Committee.

AFGHANS IN INDIA

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – Now that Afghanistan has made war against His Britannic Majesty, may we not expect that all Afghan subjects of the Amir residing in India should be treated in the same way as Germans and Austrians were after Germany went to war against Great Britain? These Afghans (moneylenders most of them) are a veritable nuisance, and our courts, civil and criminal, daily record their oppression and the tragedies that follow from it – not only in the families of the lower classes of people, such as municipal sweepers, mehters and domestic servants, but also those of middle-class Indians and Anglo-Indians, who have the misfortune, under stress of circumstances, to fall within the clutches of these usurers. Will not the Government order every thana in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to send a return of Kabuli residents within its jurisdiction and take steps to intern them and thereby rid loyal British subjects of these pests who are sucking their lifeblood?

A.C. MITRA.

34, Amherst Street.

SIR MICHAEL O’DWYER

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – Two thoughts must have been pre-eminent in the mind of every European woman who read the speech delivered by Sir Michael O’Dwyer at Government House, Lahore. The first, an intense wish to be able to express her personal gratitude for the immense services Sir Michael has rendered us all, Indian and European alike, by his fearless and masterly grasp of one of the most difficult situations any ruler in India has ever been faced with. The second a great longing for the assurance that his firm and wise policy will be continued without any change after his departure. The thought that he may be leaving India after a few weeks would otherwise fill us with dismay. I am only a woman, but I know that I am voicing the feelings of thousands of others, who like myself, earnestly desire to express our deep debt of gratitude to Sir Michael O’Dwyer.

A BRITISH WIFE AND MOTHER.

Kasauli.

“IN”AND “UNDER”

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – In The Statesman today, in the column headed “Here and There” the writer says:- “Under the circumstances” is taboo; the correct expression being “In the Circumstances.” I am not a professor of English, and I say it under correction that my impression has all along been that when the circumstances force the issue the correct form is “Under the circumstances,” while “In the circumstances” is reserved for those cases only that imply mere sequence or concurrence and suggest no compulsion. In other words “Under the circumstances” is elliptical for “Under pressure of the circumstances,” and “In the circumstances” stands for “In presence of the circumstances.” I shall be obliged for an expression of opinion on the part of your expert readers.

RAY.

Principal, Vidyasagar College, Calcutta.