BEFORE CONGRESS MEETING

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 262, 4 August 1942, Page 5

BEFORE CONGRESS MEETING

Ghandi’s Defiance VIEWS OF INDIAN LEADERS (Received August 3, 11.30 p.m.) NEW DELHI, August 2. Veiled and open threats hurled at Congress will not deter Congress from its purpose, says Gandhi in an article in bis newspaper, "Harijan.” He added that Congress thrived on opposition and attempted suppresison . to which the chorus of indignation in Britain and America was perhaps the precursor. . ~ “It may cow the people for a time, he said, “but it would never put out the flame of revolt. The justice of our demands for ending British power is unquestioned, and it is merely the moment chosen for enforcing our demands. India is not playing anj effective part in the war. Some of us are ashamed that this is so. Me feel that, if free of the foreign yoke, we should play a worthy and decisive part in the war, which has yet to reach its climax.” Gandhi appealed to the princes for support and issued a warning that India will not always be a slave country. The princes had to decide to march with the times or remain tied to the Imperial chariot wheel. They risked dispossession by the British if they made common cause with the nation. This would earn Indian goodwill. Opposition Move.

Sir Home Mehta, president of the National Democratic Union, appealed to Indian party leaders to organize opposition to Congress. He said it was essential for the safety of India that the world should be told the truth —Congress was not speaking for the whole of India. Also, Indians generally would not allow the country to be betrayed by a misguided visionary like Gandhi.

The Bengal branch of the Indian Federation of Labour adopted a resolution against the mass civil disobedience movement contemplated by Congress, “It will invite to India Fascist hordes awaiting the opportunity to enslave us in the worst way,” the federation stated.

Dr. Rajendra Prasand, former Congress President said that Gandhi contemplated the use of all forms of civil disobedience based on non-violence. “It is the last struggle for independence,” he said. “Britain evaded the demand for freedom on the ground of the transfer of power to the Indians because there was no unity. Gandhi has now decided that unity is impossible without independence. This conclusion. is the result of bitter experience and is an outcome of Sir Stafford Cripps’ mission.” The All-India Spinners’ Association proposes to present £75,000 to Gandhi on his 74th birthday. The gift will be used for the development of the production of homespun cloth. “No Sympathy With Japan.” “My only reply to Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. Amery is that we shall fight the British Government to the last,” said Pandit Nehru in a speech. “The people of England and America are preaching unity to us,” he said, “but in Europe they have been unable to settle their own quarrels and every 15 or 20 years millions of people must be slaughtered. “I have no sympathy with Japan, but I do not want India to share the fate of Burma and Malaya. I went to the utmost length to compromise with Sir Stafford Cripps. I went to such an extreme I would not do again. I hate Dominion status. Ido not want India to occupy the same status as Costa Rica, Bulgaria, Australia, or Canada. India's status is bound to be higher than those countries. Comments from England and America have convinced me that our decision is correct.”