INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20488, 5 March 1932, Page 4

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. (from oub own cohbespondent.) LONDON", January 21. Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Ijidia, invited representatives of the Press to the India Office to hear a statement of Government policy.

He Baid that it did not matter what Government was in office or might' have boen in office, any self-respecting Government, to whatever Party it might belong, would have been -compelled to take the kind of action that the Government and the Government of India had taken during the last few weeks. ,

"It was quite essential," he continued, "if the Government was to remain at all in India, that we should accopt the challenge befora us, and that we should have taken the steps to avoid what might have been threatened, namely, anarchy and disorder, a breakdown of the Government machine, or a setback of the hand of the clock of Constitutional progress it may be for 50 or 100 years. Bo far as I myself am concerned, I am very sorry that action of this kind was inevitable. I had hoped at the end of the Conference that we tfere going to get away from what I have always regarded as completely out-of-date methods of non-co-operation and war, and that we were embarking upon a new chapter of goodwill and co-opera-tion. Gandhis Machine. "I had hoped that Mr Gandhi, when he returned to India, would batfe exercised a moderating influence, and would have made it possible for us to embark at once upon this new chapter without the necessity of any of these drastic measures. Mr Gandhi and I had many talks during his visit to London. We spoke very freely and unreservedly to each other. I think he understood my point of view. I think I understood his point of view. Certainly I never disquised from him the features of the situation as I saw them. "Unfortunately, so far as I can judge, the extremists had got hold of his machine and they had forced it bo far that, whether he wished it or not, it was impossible.to stop it." Referring to the North-West Frontier Province, Sir Samuel Hoare said that Abdul Ghaffir Khan and kia bodies of Red Shirt followers were trying to set up a rival and parallel Government to the Indian Government. They were terrorising certain districts and were throwing about the most inflammable kind of material in the tribal districts outside the administrative frontier. a If we had not accepted that challenge," he continued, "the Government, as a Government, would have been discredited for years in this, perhaps, most difficult and important district of'tho Indian Empire. In the United Provinces the extremer leaders, of Congress were setting on foot an agrarian movement that really amounted to an agrarian revolution. The Government acted very patiently, even too patiently, and did everything they could to meet legitimate. grievances. Congtess agi*

tation, with the result that there again we had to., act if the Government was not going to abdicate completely." Drastic Action. v . . In Bengal, the terrorist movement had reached such a point that lives were everywhere in danger, trade and commerce and industry were becoming impossible, threats were being made against the machine of Government which, if they had been carried out, would have destroyed it. . Paced -with that situation the Government took the only action that any self-respecting Government could take, and took it drastically. So far, the action taken had proved ' successful; In .the NorthWest Frontier Province law and order were , being : ift^mtaiae^

•well. In the United"' Province* rents;, were coming in, better than they' had for many months; and in Bengal there seemed to bo reviving a greater confidence in trade and commence and industry. "I hope,", continued Sir Samuel, "that; our Indian friends will see. the two phases of our policy! in their right perspective. I hope that they will realise, after the long discussions at tho Bound Table Conferences/and the very remarkable debates in both Houses of Parliament, that they have withjn their reach a Constitution that a few years ago. thoy would have regarded as unattainable for a lopg number of years. /♦ They will see that, as Government, we are determined to govern, and I hope thejr will like us the 'tetterfan

the fact. . In .the BWaMI Governments have AWHgHM for, weakness, or aM igH|WWI their will and their IP .jgjgßß As long as we here axr?Wg™ the Government of -..jOH