WITHIN a few days of each other two Ordinances have been issued by the Government of India — one to control the supply and the other the use of paper. The first, which became operative on November 7, imposed a series of restrictions on printing and publishing; the second, and by far the more vital and serious dictum, is the order imposed on all paper mills commandeering for Government Departments 90 per cent of the mills’ monthly output. Thus are the papers mills faced with the embarrassing situation of alienating — even antagonising — their normal buyers, and printers are threatened with annihilation … even these conditions, hard as they are would be readily accepted if the sacrifices entailed would help to win the war or even shorten it — but the arguments used in many protest meetings, both Indian and European, appear to indicate that this is not quite correct.

We all agree that war demands must come first and it is exceedingly gratifying to know that … the Indian paper mills have been able to give so much definite assistance to the war effort. We also appreciate that the expansion of war industries and propaganda call for an increase in the consumption of paper, but we do not agree that Government have applied business-like measures to meet the situation. — Dawn Delhi

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2018