FUTURE OF INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 157, 31 December 1931, Page 7

FUTURE OF INDIA

HINDU-MOSLEM FAILURE END OF CONFERENCE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 2tth November. During the week-end, leading articles in a number of London newspapers have demanded that "an end should be set to the preposterous Bound-Table Conference." All these newspapers are controlled by Lord Rothcrmere and express no more than his individual opinion, but members of the Conference commented on tho effect which such a campaign might produce in a case whero important international issues, were really at stake. Mr. Mac Donald offered to arbitrate personally (says the "Daily Mail") between the representatives of the various races and religions at the Conference, and finally threatened to intervene. This was a most dangerous move. It was all the more dangerous because he at the same time threw over a promise which he had given much earlier—that the Houso of Commons should not be committed by any proposals adopted by the Bound Table Conference. Thus a political crisis of tho most serious character has arisen. The proceedings at the Bound Table Conference and its committees have revealed what the Indian extremists have in view. If their demands were accepted—and a handful of Mr. MacDonald's supporters are urging that they should be accepted—the ruin of the Indian Empire and the bankruptcy of this country would become inevitable. MB. CHURCHILL'S WARNING. Speaking in the Statutes of Westminster debate, Mr. Churchill said: "Contemplate the frightful disaster which would befall India if the full Dominion status set out in this Bill were to become the law in India." Dominion status, as defined here, would be incompatible with the slightest semblance of Imperial authority. In the fullness of time, and in the nick of time, he said,;■. Parliament had arrived which was capable of calling a halt in these matters —(Conservative cheers) —a Parliament which was bound by the obligations of the past. It was a Parliament willing to face realities, both in Ireland and India. It was a Parliament resolveu. to preserve the legal essentials of the Imperial structure. He trusted that the Government would prove itself at the beginning of its career in keeping with the wishes and the feelings of this Parliament. (Loud cheers.) MAIN PURPOSE UNIMPAIRED. The Conference (writes the Parliamentary correspondent of "The Times") has not done everything that some enthusiasts hoped of it—notably the question of minority representation remains unsolved, though it is nearer to solution than it was—but it has done a great deal of useful work. The purpose ahead of it —responsibility with safeguards for a federated all India— stands unimpaired and will be reaffirmed. And in the meantime, while the central work goes forward, there are practical steps to be taken at once, particularly in the sphere of provincial autonomy, to show that the British Government means business. Apart from the winding-up of the second session of the Bound Table Conference, the two points on which the' critics seem to have fastened are: 1. The Prime Minister's recent abortive offer to give a decision on the question of communal representation in return for a written undertaking from everyone concerned that it should be accepted and worked; and 2. The prospect that he will state the views of the Go\-ernnient on the present stage of the work of the Conference at the final meeting of the Conference itself, and not in the first instance to the House of Commons. NO REASON TOR DESPAIR. As every one knows, Mr. Mac Donald's very proper condition of laying down a communal settlement was not fulfilled; but there was every justification for making the offer. Some of the Indian delegates were inclined to cover the failure of the Hindu-Moslem negotiations by suggesting that the British Government had stood aloof and would use the deadlock as a pretext for inaction. It was; essential o make it clear that every help in settling their differences was at their 'disposal from the British Government if they really require it., No doubt a settlement made among themselves would always be incomparably better than a settlement sought from outside. There is no reason yet to despair altogether of such a settlement. But it may come to the latter alternative in the end, and the critics who are complaining of the Prime Minister's action should be the

la3t to object to so conspicuous a re> cognition of Great Britain as tho impartial arbiter in Indian quarrels. Like all the work of the Conference in its present session, the discussions of tho Federal Structure Committee (says the "Daily Telegraph") are of indispensable value in securing the expression of Indian opinion. The Conference, it has long been evident, can do little more. General agreement upon outstanding questions has not been found attainable; and in the present case the Moslem delegates, while waiving their objection to the reserved subjects being debated in the committee, maintain their attitude of total aloofness from tho proceedings, in consequence of the refusal of the Hindu majority to concede their communal claims. Incurable disagreement on the minorities question, which was one for Indians alone, is a major misfortune, and the means of overcoming it aro still to seek. But apart from that crucial matter the Conference will not have failed. It never was, as a good deal of loose comment would apparently assume it to have been convoked as a constituent assembly on whose proposals Parliament would automatically confer its sanction. That is a gross misunderstanding of its position for which there was never any warrant. If its functions as a consultative body have not been discharged so fully, and with such a measure of common consent, as had been hoped, its proceedings in that capacity will be nevertheless a vital contribution to the task of settlement. THE MOSLEM ATTITUDE. In the meantime, the Moslem delegation have sent the following telegram to Fath Abdulla Haroon, presi-dent-elect of the All-India Moslem Conference:—"With reference to your cable: We repeatedly and emphatically placed the position of the Moslems before the Government, that until the communal question is settled no Constitution that may be framed will be acceptable to us. We have not been participating in the work of tho Federal Structure Committee regarding responsibility at the centre. You need have no anxiety regarding the Moslem attitude in this Conference.