GANDHI BARGAINS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20076, 24 October 1939, Page 6

GANDHI BARGAINS

STATUS OF INDIA

CONGRESS PARTY AIMS CO-OPERATION IN WAR (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The significance of the recent cabled news from India and the part still played in Indian politics by Mahatma Gandhi, were commented on by Dr. A. Bramwell Cook, chief medical officer of the Emery Hospital, conducted by the Salvation Army at Aannand, in the Bombay presidency. Dr. Cook, formerly of Hastings, has arrived on six months' furlough. Both he and his wife fire captains in the Salvation Army. Dr. Cook, 'a former Waitaki High School boy and of the University of Auckland and Otago, holds degrees of the London University and, as a tribute to his work, was awarded the ICaiser-In-Hind Medal in 3938 by the Government of India. He stated that of the 11 Ministries in India, seven are controlled by the Congress Party. The prime mover behind the policy is Gandhi who, although not actually a member of the party, is agitating for complete Dominion status.

The position now was that they wanted to bargain and get a promise of full Dominion status. They were holding out a threat of resigning. If they did. the Viceroy would have to resort to minoritly rule. It was a tremendous question. The princes were whole-heartedly in support of the British Empire because their authority was maintained by the British Government. The unrest was almost wholly confined to British India and did not greatly affect the Stales. Dr.' Cook said that Gandhi was not an extremist. He fortunately favoured a moderate policy and held in check the extremists in India. Mr. Chandrah Bose was one of the leaders of the extremists and was going through India asking his supporters to issue an ultimatum to Britain on the question of Dominion status. Gandhi, however, was agitating for what he wanted by constitutional means.