EVELIN TRENT-continued--

ALBERT EINSTEIN PLEADS FOR

RELEASE OF M.N. ROY

When M.N.Roy was arrested by British Authorities in India, Einstein issued a statement. Einstein as a great physist, and Nobel prize winner was known to M.N. Roy in Germany. During late 1920s M.N. Roy had contact with Einstein. With that background Einstein took note of Roy's arrest and made a public statement.

The Text of Einstein's Statement :

"M.N. Roy, in a cultural point of view, a valuable personality is threatened with death. "In the general interest of humanity, it is essential that the political fight, inevitable in its way, avoid the primitive method of extermination. Only in this way the political fight can be beneficial in longer term for the general public."

Einstein issued this statement from Princeton University on 26 September 1931 (33).

M.N. Roy, an intellectual Communist, returned to India after 16 years. He toured in India under the name of Mahmood and continued the fight against the British rule . M.N. Roy was already indicted in several cases in absentia and the conviction was pending. The Indian Communists already launched a vicious campaign against

Roy under the direction of Moscow. They leaked the news of Roy's whereabouts to the British police. In the middle of July 1931 Roy was arrested in Bombay. The charge was "waging war against the King."

American communists (majority group) reacted immediately and The Revolutionary. Age, a weekly published the news of the arrest. They commented on the shameful silence of official communist press in India and Russia. The International Commu­nist opposition took initiative and wanted to save Roy from the bloody claws of British Imperialism. Revolutionary Age commented that "The Indian agents of English Labor" government have arrested comrade Roy and have thrown him into prison. They appealed to the International opinion to be built up sufficiently to hold the heavy hand of The British.

The official Communist Party of India had been carrying on the most shameful attacks on Comrade Roy who was working illegally in India. The paper said that "these 100% communists" declared that the renegade Roy must be fought with all means at hand, even denunciations to the police! "The International Red Aid, organized specially to defend revolutionary class and prisoners refused to do anything about the arrest of Comrade Roy. "Let the renegade rot in prison" is what a responsible official of the German Red Aid remarked. The Red Aid is ready to help German Fascists but can do nothing for Comrade Roy!

In spite of the fact that the official communist leaders have organized a veritable conspiracy of silence about the case, The Revolutionary Age commented about a large public mass meeting called in Hamburg under the auspices of the Communist Party of Germany which voted unanimously in favor of a resolution against the arrest of Manavendranath Roy.

Resolutions for the release of Roy poured in from Germany, Sweden, Alsace, Czechoslovakia and communist opposition organizations. Revolutionary Age requested that every labor organization, every organization of oppressed colonial peoples or national minorities, every liberty loving man and woman should unite to demand the release of M.N. Roy from the claws of British imperialism (Sept. 12, 1931). When Roy's trial was set for October 1931, several intellectuals, including Einstein, appealed for the release of Roy. They were :

Henri Barbusee,. Editor of French Communist Leader, Prof. Jerome Davis of Yale University, Dr. \Y1.E.B. DuBois, editor of Crisis and a Black leader, Waldo Frank, author, Garfield Hays, attorney, John Haynes Holmes, Minister of the community church, Prof. Robert MorssLovett, University of Chicago, A..J Muste, Brookwood Labor College, Julia Lethrop, former chief of Federal Children's Bureau, Norman Thomas, Director of the League of Industrial Democracy, Oswald Garrison Villard, Editor of Nation and Roger E. Baldwin issued an appeal which was carried in Revolutionary Age {Nov. 14, 1931).

Several organizations also demanded the release of Roy: The teachers and students of Public High School of Tinz. The Functionaries Conference of the Chemical Workers Union, The Braunschweig Teachers Union, he Nuremberg Building Traders, workers union and the metal workers union of Sommerda, the central traders and labor councils of Schoningen, the Nature-friends of Jena and the League for the Struggle against Reaction and Fascism.

M.N.Roy appealed from Cawnpore prison to the workers, peasants and radical intellectuals of the whole world to come to the support of the Indian masses striving for freedom and to demand the release of the thousands of Indian revolutionaries from the dungeons of the British prisons. He also condemned the, crimes of British labor government. He pointed out the suicidal policy of the executive of the communist international and of the "Loyalite Communists" of India. Roy sent this message on 23 August 1931, which was fully carried in The Revolutionary Age, New York.

The American Communists (majority group) cabled to Gandhi in London with a request to intervene on behalf of Roy but he declined. Gandhi was attending the Round Table conference at that time. Gandhi was asked to issue a statement, but he refused. Roy's arrest was discussed in Canadian Labor Defence League where they wanted to wire to Berlin to ascertain the facts. Frederick Inter-Racial Club of Brooklyn, New York, and Boro Park Workers Youth Club of Brooklyn in New York too passed resolutions

for the release of Roy. Revolutionary Age carried articles from Independent India, a weekly from Bombay about defense committees formed to fight for Roy in India. AITUC established a defense fund in. support of Roy. The paper also carried the news that how demonstrations and agitations in favor of Roy were suppressed by the police in India. They have noted the details of the various defense committees organized in Cawnpore, Bombay, Calcutta, Lucknow and Delhi. Mr B. Singh, the secretary of Roy Defense Committee, informed the world about the condition of Roy and the ill treatment to him in British prisons. In the various defence committees there were Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Tayyab Shaik, Y.B. Karnik, R. S. Ruiker, Purushotham Das Trikamdas and several prominent leaders. Mr B. Singh also revealed how Roy was treated in jail, and condemned the attack on Roy in the German Press (in an article) that Roy was arrested as an accomplice of imperialism and for purely diplomatic reasons. He stated that Roy was not permitted to receive books, newspapers and even a typewriter was refused though the court sanctioned one. Roy was not allowed any ventilation to his room and even ice and hot water were not allowed. M.N. Roy was sentenced to twelve years of imprisonment. American Communists described the sentence as savage and as a severe blow to the liberation movement. They resolved to continue the struggle for the release of Roy. Ajoy Kumar Gosh described the details of Roy's trial. The magistrate came to the jail' instead of taking the prisoner to the court. The Local Bar association took up the case of Roy's defense. Viceroy Lord \Xiillingdon himself personally took interest in deciding the prison cell of Roy.

The communist parties appealed for books, money to help the legal defense of Roy. When the money came they sent some amount to Roy in prison but the postal authorities returned it saying that Roy refused it. Actually the authorities never brought this to the notice of Roy. The class distinctions in prisons in India were also exposed abroad when Roy was treated as a third class prisoner, forced to wear heavy prison clothing, eat coarse prison food. Roy lost much weight in prison and suffered physically as well as mentally.

When rumors were spread that Comrade Roy was shifted from Canpore jail, thousands of railway workers gathered in Lucknow station and demonstrated. They found that the prisoner was not Roy and then they raised slogans in support of Roy. The Communist press in USA carried the news of Roy until the sentence was reduced to six years and Roy was treated as a political prisoner. The Workers Age carved full reports about Roy {34) .

by Innaiah Narisetti