“A MELANCHOLY THING”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1023, 14 July 1930, Page 9

“A MELANCHOLY THING”

RAMSAY MACDONALD ON INDIA’S CRISIS LORDS TO DISCUSS IT t British Official "Wireless Reed. 11.40 a.m. RUGBY, Sunday. Referring in a speech at the Crystal Palace last evening, to the situation in India, the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, said the state of India today was serious. “What was happening was only adding to India’s difficulties, and was not advancing India’s chance of reaching Dominion status. “The men with whom we wish to cooperate,” lie said, “have had to be arrested for actions which, if they themselves had been responsible for purely Indian Government, faced with conditions such as those they have created recently, would have compelled the arrest of the people responsible for those conditions. “The whole of this is a melancholy thing which is unnecessary and foolish. The men who are going to be the Governors of the States and responsible for their administration ought to look ahead and understand the conditions under which alone evolution and change are possible.” Viscount Burnham, who was a member of the Indian Statutory Commission, has given notice that he will ask the Government in the House of Lords on Wednesday whether, having regard to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin’s statement at Simla on July 0. the report of the Indian Statutory Commission will form the main subject of consideration and discussion a£ the round table conference which is to assemble here in November. This will give rise to a debate which will be the first to be held in Parliament since the Viceroy's recent declaration. The Prime Minister in the House of Commons on Monday will be asked whether he proposes to give the Commons an opportunity of a discussion of the political situation in India before the House rises at the end of Ju\y for the summer recess. The “Ohservelr” demands that every party in Britain must be represented at the India Conference. It says the Dominions aro directly concerned and the whole future life of Australia and New Zealand is deeply affected.