MINISTER CRITICISED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 9

MINISTER CRITICISED

SPEECH BY SECRETARY FOR INDIA “NOT QUITE SATISFACTORY” LONDON, Friday. There is general feeling of relief that the Indian debate is over. As a member of the Simon Commission remarked, it was unfortunate that Parliament had been obliged to discuss India at all at present. Mr. Wedgwood Berm’s speech is not considered to have been quite satisfactory from one holding such a high office. Several of the newspapers say it should have been weightier, steadier and more frank. The Conservative newspapers, which in the past few days have manifested anxiety to protect Mr. Baldwin from attacks respecting his attitude, naturally devote their editorial articles this morning to that aspect of the question. They thoroughly commend his action throughout. The “Daily Telegraph” expresses the opinion that Mr. Benn mismanaged a delicate business. The “Morning Post” complains that the House of Lords was told one thing and the House of Commons another. It remarks: “We have the Government speaking in two contradictory voices. We have the national congress offering an interpretation which the Secretary of State for India will neither affirm nor repudiate. We have confusion, and we can only hope against hope that we shall not have in the future a surrender.” The “Daily Chronicle” says it is not enough to say that Lord Irwin’s statement meant what it said. The fact is that Indians interpreted it as meaning that full Dominion status is to be granted forthwith. Mr. Lloyd George asked for a definite statement to the effect that such an interpretation was inaccurate. Mr. Benn ought to have replied frankly to that effect.

The “Times” says: “The Government’s case in the main is a perfectly strong one. The Viceroy’s statement that the goal had not been changed has been welcomed in India at its face value —no more and no less. “It may be predicted with confidence that the Simon Committee's report has a real chance of being pondered and discussed in the country most concerned. That, after all, is what matters most.”