COMMONS' DEBATE ON INDIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5278, 14 December 1946, Page 5

COMMONS' DEBATE ON INDIA

jg (Press Assn —

* POSITION NOT HOPELESS PROSPECT OF MORE BLOODSHED

- Rec . 9.80 p.m.)

| LONDON, Dec. 13. 5 A warning that there was a H prospect of more and worse 3 strife and bloodshed to come B in India, was made by the | Leader of the Opposition, Mr. B Churchill, speaking in the I House of Commons debate on i India. All the facts and omens H pointed to a revival of the inM ternal hatreds and quarrels || which had lain dormant under II the "mild incompetence of 11 liberal-minded British conig 1 rol." Si Mr. Churchill said he believed the IwS reiu-n of a Hindu majority woultl not jg| bi* achieved without civil war, perKgf haps not between armies and organ3 ised forces, but in thousands of isom land places. 3 'I he technical and procedural points jffi! ncv in dispute at Delhi were not the W issues at stake, but the symhols of K' det'jdy-rooted passions and hatreds. - K I'ritain must not on any account W:: allnw British soldiers or British of6 fices in the Indian Army to become in- ® str-nents for enforcing caste Hindu Pi (toiuination upon 9'0, 000,000 Moslems and 00,000,000 Untoucha-bles. Although it was generally agreed .1;| that power should be transferred to i€ the Iiulians, the transfer must Be i f ] bast d on the agreement and eo-opera- ;) *£ toi of the principal Indian forces, t 4 or t lere would be measureless bloodi] 'is shed and lasting discredit to the Brit:t k isi iame throughout the world. ^ ' More people had lost their lives ^ ' in the four months since the Interiin Governntent took over than L in the pvevious 90 years, and this j foas might he only the first few heavy M-. drops before the thunderstorm brokeagtifc The president of the Board of hyl Tra.it*. Sir Stafford Cripps, who was o| t a member of the Cabinet mission to t|e India in May, said that Britain jjg i ■.vantcd to hand over power to the In;u'8® i>an people, 'but the difficulty was oy - how Ui accomplish that objeetive. ntJo The fundanlental problem in India ii p' i ras that the principal parties had not , % i showr themselves prepared to trust ua, a one aunther or work democratically. Though the present Coalition Govlatis ernment was working satisfactori]y, public speeches by supporters i of the two major parties and widej spread outbreaks of violence had not helped the position. e4tj ^'u * errible toll of casualties was a!we a h'dex of communal feeling, which, j.e^ ] iouuh deplorablA must be accepted i Ijjjisa siark fact. The leaders of both rodil ' had repeatedly condemued the gJLjy Jstin hances and had tried personally a in? ■ u-nee their followers toward a tq fat iT-ame of mind, The Govern'ini a :ent elieved that the position was e Mai 31 h tpeless. ' j It .-iil hoped that the parties l of'" 7l'u]«! dnd themselves side hy side UTjA 5 oth ii: the Constituent Assembly and aftW ' ■ -eetions.