The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1929. THE INDIAN SITUATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1929. THE INDIAN SITUATION.

J he rather sensational cable message concerning the intentions of the Labour Government in regard to India need not, considers the Christchurch Times, be taken too seriously, at any rate that part of it suggesting that India will be granted dominion status within a stated period of years. The Government will have the benefit in its deliberatit ns of the Simon report, completing and supplementing the report of the important commission that was set up by Lord Morley, and it is not at all likely to allow itself to be stampeded into premature action. That India would be able to govern itself within twenty or thirty years is not admitted by anyone really acquainted with the conditions, and while everyone may be disposed to concede that the country must ultimately control its own destinies, the overwhelming weight of informed opinion is emphati-

calJy against any real radical change in the near future. The problem to he solved is extraordinarily complex, but it has three ma n elements that can be stated in simple terms. The lirst is the settlement of tile ancient difference between Hindu and Mahomedan communities. Mr Coatnian, the Director of Public Information to the Government of India, in the striking report that he issued last year, described this as the master problem of India, for the two sections, living side by side for centuries without ever acting in common or thinking in common, have been kept apart only by British domination. Already, In the few brief years since political concessions were lirst made there have been scores of conflicts, more political than religious, and the effect of constitutional reforms would be to accentuate rather than to eliminate the old enmities. The concession of full selfgovernment must therefore include provision for the adequate protection of minorities, and especially of the Mahomedan minority, and the plan may even have to include the demarcation of spheres of interest nominally to promote co-operation, hut really to keep the two sections apart. Secondly, there is the question of the status and powers of the Indian princes, who must be confirmed in the rights guaranteed to them by Britain. Then there is the matter of the spread of Communism, which must be kept in check, and which can only be controlled by a strong government enjoying the full confidence of all sect.ons. The question of the future of the Indian Army is perhaps less difficult of solution, but it 'is admitted that for twenty years to come it will be Britain's duty! to supply the officers, since in the past Bnta.n has deliberately excluded Hindus from posts of authority and so has denied them the -opportunity to qualify for commands, Of course, as every student of Indian reports must know, there are scores of issues of minor importance to be settled before the institution of Swaraj is possible, but the three pro.dom.s we have named stand out as dominant. Mo doubt India is looking to the Labour Government to institute far-reaching reforms, and the Labour Government in turn must feel that it is committed to a radical policy, hut the free promises of the hustings will not easily be translated into legislation. It is probable that Mr MacDonald will elect to make a beginning with the provincial legislatures, in the hope of making the peoples of India familiar with the forms of democratic government but even here, as one publicist puts it, any programme adopted must be dependent on events and not on dates. It is easy tc prophesy, therefore, that whatever India may expect from the Labour Government, India will be disappointed, and therein lies the possib lity of trouble that will delay the advent of reforms, because the babuism that has been encouraged, all these years by irresponsible Labour politicians has very actively increased' its demands and is now clamorous for': changes that cannot conceivably be made.