INDIAN PROBLEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 21 January 1931, Page 5

INDIAN PROBLEM

NOT PLAIN SAILING WORKING OUT A CONSTITUTION LONDON PRESS VIEWS (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, 20th January. “The Times” says: “None supposes the Indian problem will be plain sailing even here, but the real test of constructive ability will be seen in India. Our visitors will have to take their share of working out those complex details of a constitution of which the conference furnished no more than the barest outlines. They must be prepared to be hampered from the outset by ridicule, abuse, and fanatical violence, but they at least know now that the uphill road to complete self-government lies open to them if they have the courage to face it.” The “Daily Telegraph” says: “It cannot be foretold with confidence that the obstacles encountered will prove surmountable. There are others in the background the difficulty of which cannot be measured, but there has been a favourable beginning to the phase for which the Simon Commission prepared the way.” The “Morning Post” says “It would be futile to commit ourselves to crude projects. The Conservative Party yields to none in its regard for the interests of the Indian people, but it could never agree to the coercion of local minorities, nor the surrender of the British position in India.”

The “Daily Herald” says: “We dare hope congress leaders will rise to the occasion,, also that Hindu, Moslem and Sikh will compose their differences. There is better hope for India’s future than for many weary months. That is the supreme achievement of the conference.” The “Daily Express” says: “Had Mr MacDonald listened to the voice of reality it would long ago have told him that Indian self-government was an impossibility, that it would be indistinguishable from chaos, and that India is not and never will be a nation.” “REAL SUCCESS” (British Official Wireless. RUGBY, 20th January. Maharajah Alwar, who leaves England to-day, presided over a farewell dinner which he gave last night to a number of delegates of the Round Table Conference and other guests. Lord Sankey, replying to the toast of the Conference, said it had achieved real success. It had only suffered one misfortune in that there was a large body of educated and patriotic Indian opinion which they had not had the advantage of hearing. BURMA AND INDIA SEPARATION TO BE PROCEEDED WITH RUGBY, 20th January. In an announcement regarding the Government’s decision to proceed with the separation of Burma from India, the Hon. W. Wedgwood Benn, Secretary of State for India, in the House of Commons, stated: “The Government wishes it to be understood that the prospects of constitutional advance held out to Burma as a past of British India will not be prejudiced by this decision, and that the constitutional,objective, after separation, will remain a progressive realisation of responsible Government in Burma as an integral part of the Empire. In pursuance of this decision it intends to take such steps towards framing, in consultation with public opinion in Burma, a new Constitution as may be found most convenient and expeditious, the object being that the new Constitutions for India and Burma shall come into force as near as may bo simultaneously.