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Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun and they have not. -- Hilaire Belloc. Rudyard Kipling, shaggy-browed poet of British imperialism, who would never have written such a cynical (and honest) observation as Poet Belloc's, was 66 last fortnight. The Kipling Society had a banquet in London presided over by grey-haired Major General Lionel Charles Dunsterville, better known as the original Stalky. Poet Kipling did not attend. He stayed with his big, quiet, little-known wife, thinking. Days like the days of his youth seemed at hand. Last week a detachment of 400 officers and men from the Welch Regiment and the Royal Scots sailed for duty in India. The replacement was no larger than usually sails at this time of year, but the men knew, Mr. Kipling knew, the world knew that Britain was preparing for serious trouble. The India Office issued a bulletin:

"Mr. Gandhi has stated as part of his creed that civil disobedience is not only a natural right of the people . . . but that it is also an effective substitute for violence or armed rebellion. Experience has proven time and time again that in India civil disobedience cannot be carried on without violence. . . .

"It is opposed to all constitutional principles and if it achieved its object would make any form of government impossible.

"In using their full resources against it the Government of India are therefore fighting the battle not only of the present government but of all governments of the future."

The Army. India is a country of 318,000,000 souls. To keep it safe for Britain there is at the present time a British force of about 60,000 men and 165,000 native troops commanded by British and Indian officers. Britain may borrow from the native princes, at their discretion, private armies (each with their British "advisers") of about 40.000 more. And there is a police force of 20,000 men trained to arms. Commander-in-Chief of the army in India is handsome, grey-haired General Sir Philip Walhouse Chetwode. As a cavalryman, he was serving in Burma the year young Rudyard Kipling published Barrack-room Ballads. Under General Sir Edmund Allenby he commanded the 20th Army Corps at the capture of Jerusalem. In 1928 he became Chief of the Indian General Staff, in 1930 succeeded Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood as C.-in-C. His job last week was to keep the army on its toes, bring the British forces in India unobtrusively up to their authorized strength of 68.900 men.

Raids. With St. Gandhi and most of the important Nationalist leaders in jail (.TIME, Jan.11). Viceroy Lord Willingdon stiffened his repressive ordinances still further. Picketing British shops was already a crime. Last week special judges were empowered to pass any sentence including sentence of death on persons convicted of violating the emergency ordinances. Sentence may be passed in the absence of the defendant; only the substance of the evidence need be recorded. In Calcutta alone over 60 raids were made on Nationalist offices. Other raids v.ere made in Delhi. At the village of Sayadla in the Surat district, Mrs. Kasturbai Gandhi was arrested with Miss Maniben Patel, daughter of Vallabhai Patel, onetime President of the All-India National Congress, who is now jailed with St. Gandhi, and a third woman, who said she belonged to a wealthy Parsi family. All three were charged with inciting India's women to non-violent revolt. Mrs. Gandhi, who had pleaded to be taken with her husband at his arrest, submitted quietly, smiled serenely at the officers. At Cawnpore, scene of the Indian Mutiny Massacre of 1857, cavalry were called out. At Karachi police charged a crowd after a public meeting, injured 28. At Allahabad the subpostmaster and two others were killed in a riot. At Srinagar a mob of 12,-coo stormed a police station, freed three prisoners. At Bombay U. S. tourists were frightened away from British shops by saffron-robed women pickets. One tourist persisted in buying a hat, had it snatched from her head. Police found five live .bombs in a first-class compartment of the Darjeeling express. The walls of Bombay buildings mysteriously broke out in a rash of Red posters. Below a crudely drawn picture of a sword and pistol ran the legend:

"Beware, ye demons of a vanishing Empire! We warn officers of the British Government always to move about armed. At a signal we will kill marked officers. Congressmen [members of the Indian National Congress] do not interfere without solemn duties."

Meanwhile St. Gandhi squatted quietly in stone-walled Yerovda Jail, spinning 500 yards of yarn a day, sipping goat's milk, walking round & round the prison compound with a retired British private as companion.

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