The mail papers from England bring the sensational news that Mrs. [Annie] Besant in interviews to the Press has made the definite statement that, to her own certain knowledge, German gold energised sedition and unrest in India. Speaking to an interviewer of the London ‘Times’ she declared that “the revolutionary party in India was supported largely by German money, which had been used for many years in the effort to cause unrest. Even before the war, money had been spent freely on German propaganda work, which was carried on largely by German missionaries who taught children to ‘call for the German Kaiser’, instead of for our own King-Emperor. The first results of German propaganda were the revolutionary movements in Punjab and Bengal. Impatience at the slow progress made towards freedom by the old peaceful methods had caused the younger men in India, particularly the student class, to despair of those methods ever proving successful. Their participation in revolution was an act of despair, but the number of this class associated with the purely revolutionary movement, who wanted separation, was small.”
