AUTONOMY FOR INDIA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22338, 24 May 1947, Page 5

AUTONOMY FOR INDIA

TRANSFER PROCEDURE APPROVED CABINET ACCEPTS VICEROY’S PLAN S _ . ~ / INDIAN LEADERS TO BE INFORMED (By Telegraph—Press Assn,—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) LONDON, May 23. Reuter’s political correspondent understands that the Cabinet, at a special meeting at No. 10 Downing Street attended by Lord Mountbatten, generally approved of the Viceroy’s plan of procedure for transferring power to India. The Prime Minister, Mr. C. R. Attlee, put the plan before the Cabinet with the commendation of the Secretary for India, Lord Listowel, President of the Board of Trade, Sir Stafford Cripps, and the Minister of Defence, Mr. A. V. Alexander. Statements on the decision will be made simultaneously in London and India after the Viceroy’s return. He is expected to leave on Thursday and to submit the plan to the Indian leaders on June 2.

l Many Complex Problems. Sir Homi Mody, a former member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council, said the questions involved in the political division ip India were so many and complex that the deadline for the British departure in June, 1948, would not see anything like their solution. The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, said that Mr. Jinnah's determination to demand a corridor through Hindustan was an untenable proposal to which the rest of India would never agree. The Moslem League cabled to Mr. Attlee, Lord Mountbatten and Lord Listowel declaring that the Chamber of Princes had betrayed the Moslems by failing to send a single Moslem to represent the States in the Constituent Assembly. The league appealed to the British Government to correct the gross injustice to 30,000,000 Moslems living in the Indian States. Arson during the past week has caused £1,000,000 worth of damage to property in Lahore. One hundred and fifty buildings were burnt out, including 12 Hindu and Sikh temples and the 100-year-old residence of the Rajah of Sheikhapure, who is one of the biggest landlords in Punjab. It is reported that 5000 Hindus are leaving Lahore daily for safety in adjoining provinces. Their flight is causing an acute labour shortage in Lahore. Rioters shot and killed a Hindu and wounded two others in the Mardan district of the North-West Frontier Province. Moslems damaged the Mardan municipal office and the judge’s court and destroyed revenue records in many villages. , . _ Communal rioting returned to Bombay today. About 12 persons are reported to have been injured in knife attacks The police fired two rounds to disperse a crown stoning a tram. In Calcutta, a Government communique said that three persons were killed and 24 injured in 19 communal clashes. The Calcutta rioters used bombs, acid and firearms. The police fired five rounds and arrested 60. It is announced that 42 Hindus, 35 Sikhs and 31 Moslems were killed and 107 Moslems and 92 Hindus and Sikhs have been seriously injured in the communal rioting at Lahore since May 14. Lahore is now quiet with people resuming normal business. Gun blav is again rife in Calcutta, where two persons were killed, 30 injured and 114 arrested during the dav’s 14 communal incidents.