The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Sun. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1942. INDIA AND THE WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 166, 16 July 1942, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Sun. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1942. INDIA AND THE WAR

JNDIA is the grontest prize that the Japanese, or the Germans, or both acting together, could wrest frr.m the British Empire, and it is certain that India occupies a large place in the plans of both. The attitude of India s political leaders towards the Axis on the one hand and the United Nations on the other is therefore of great and increasing importance. It is often said that the politically-minded Indians are a minority, and that the Influence r.f their leaders is exaggerated, and the fact that India's war clToit is organised on a great scale despite the attitude of the Congress party supports this argument. Yet it is obvious that India's war elTort would be greater If the non-co-operation of the political section were changed to co-cperatlon, and as the Influence of Gandhi, Nehru find the others Is undoubted, their attitude is important because they are thu men with whom the British Government must deal. Their attitude has become the more important since the Japanese conquest of Jiurma. It is one thing for an important section of Indians to withhold co-operation with the Rritish power in a war being fought far from India s shores. That attitude has not prevented the dispatch of Indian troops to the Middle F:ast. and some cf them are amongst the finest troops under General Auchinleck's command. It is another thing when the possibility arises of an enem.y attack on India. What, In that event, would the Congress party do? Would it exhort its followers to resistance, or would it try to be "neutral"?

The answer, as it appears In the resolution of the Congress Working Commiu.ro, is that only if India is granted complete independence now will ihf« Congress co-operate In measures for the defence of India If independence be not granted now, then Gandhi talks of directing "a mass non-violent m< vement on the widest possible scale ... as short and swift as possible." This will be splendid news for the Japanese It they are In a position to launch an attack on India they may hope to find the defenders partially paralysed. Nor is the prospect, from Britain s point of view, or from India's, really improved by the fact that the powerful M. slem section is deeply distrustful of the Congress party and the president of the Moslem League has declared the resolution entirely unacceptable. The Moslem League's opposition to the Congress plans is not equivalent to support of the British. In the circumstances nnd especially since the experience of Sir Stafford Cripps is still fresh in memory, the only cnurse open to the Indian Government is to continue to govern and to proceed with its preparations for India's defence. an attack should come, It will not be repelled by Congress partv resolutions, but by the army under General Wavell's command. Then ' nflia . ns wi " recognise the appalling irresponsibility of those of their leaders who are so obsessed by their hostility to British rule that they wish to undermine It even at the moment when It Is concentrating •11 Its efforts to save India from the common foe.