SAFEGUARDING RIGHTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 33, 1 October 1931, Page 3

SAFEGUARDING RIGHTS

(British Official Wireless).

BRITAIN SUPPORTS DELEGATES IN EFFORT TO REACH AGREEMENT SMALL GROUPS REASSURED

RUGBY, Tuesday. The Indian communal question was the subject of a three-hour talk last night between Mahatma Gandhi and the Aga Khan and other members of the Moslem delegation to the India Round Table Conference and it is anticipated that the conversations will be continued later. The delegates of the Sikhs, the lower castes and other smaller Indian communities are also using the interval before the Minorities Committee meets again on Thursday to reach an agreement among themselves. Representatives of these smaller communities, who had some fear that an agreement between the large communities might take insufficient account of their claims, were reassured by the Prime Minister's statement yesterday that the task before the committee was the settlement of the minority question as a whole and" not exclusively a settlement of the HinduMoslem differences, and that the Minorities Committee was the body before which a general settlement must come. The newspapers here strongly support the Prime Minister's contention that the minorities problem is one for the Indians themselves to settle, and that the leaders of each community must take risks and accept reasonable responsibilities. The "Times" says: "The Indian delegations can count upon British help

at every stage of their discussions, but they must remember that the problem before them can only be solved satisfaetorily by the Indians themselves, because it is in its essence a problem of mutual confidence. An imposed agreement would be no solution." The "Manchester Guardian" says: "No outside body can usefully dictate the terms, or even arbitrate, on such questions as whether there are to be joint or separate electorates in India, which are essentially domestic. It has often been suggested that the Hindu-Moslem differences are a source of gratification here, but nothing could be farther from the truth. The vast majority of the people in Great Britain would welcome a Hindu-Moslem settlement because it would clear the way for a larger settlement and the creation of an all India self government federation."