DIVISION OF INDIA SEEMS INEVTABLE

Chronicle (Levin), 3 May 1947, Page 5

DIVISION OF INDIA SEEMS INEVTABLE

BUlT MOSLEMS WANT IT AtL THEIR WAY Received Friday, 7 p.m. LONDON, May 2. The Tirnes ' Deihi cofresp'onde/it satr.the Congfes's Partv's Working cOminit tee which itiet twicfe yesterday, is belie'ved to be engaged in evolviftg a clear-eut polifey oii tlie proposed partition of Irtdia which eV.en its niost mvet erate opponents are now coming to re gard as inevitable. But a wide gult still sepahlf.es Moslem and Congress vievvpoints on this vexetl iSsufe. Mr .Jinn'ah m'aintains that Pakistan meansa.separate Mb'slfem state for all areas in ciuded in groups 15 ahd C of tfife British Cabinet Missio/f plan, namely, for Kind,Piinjab,- NOrthwfeSt 'FrOhtier Pfovince/ Baiuchistan in the nortfiwest and Ben gal and Assam in the northeast. Any thing less involving the partition of Punjab and Bengal into predbminately Moslem and non Aloslenr areas, he re gards as fiothing better than "trun catfed or mutilated mofh-e'aten Pakis tan" which he emphatically rejects. He also" demands, as a Iogical cordllary of Pakistan, the division of Ihdia's defence forces between Pakistan aml llindustan before .fune 1948. The ('ongress Party's rejoihder is that Mr. Jinnah cannot have it bottf! vvavs. Either hfe wantS a division of Iildia or does not. If he insists on n division, as evidently hfe dhes,- then it can only l>e on a basis which suits botli partics and not Air. Jinnah alone.. in face of these and otlter diffierences, u is difiicult to see how the British Oov ermne'nt can preservC Oife ideal of a united India for which Britain has lab oured all these years, The' Vieeroy's* adviSer, LOrd I^tnay,is flyirig to Londdn todqy td fepoH on Ihe ■Yicefby's rdcent diSCuss'ionS with the lndian leaders. The Vicefoy, it may be taken-for granted; has formed definite opinions O'n how beSt to imple ment the BritiSh deciAiOn to liand over power by ,Tnne 1948' and his p'lan of action is believed to be elastic enough to allow of several approaches. The British (lovernmenf will have to' flefe'itle' which approac.ii it prefers, bearing in' miftd thfe pa rarnOUnt neftd _ to eifd the present uncertainties which are intensifving conflicts particularly in tlie; Punjab, northwfest f rontbP Ji(id Bengal.