AT A DEADLOCK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1939, Page 5

AT A DEADLOCK

DISCUSSIONS IN INDIA

Statement Issued by Viceroy

CORRESPONDENCE WITH PARTY LEADERS PUBLISHED

HINDUS AND MOSLEMS FAIL TO SETTLE DIFFERENCES

(British Official ’Wireless.) RUGBY, November 5. Failure to reach an agreement, in the current discussions between the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, Lord Linlithgow, and Indidn party leaders is reported by the viceroy in a statement issued to the Press todaj. Together with this statement, the text, of letters between the Viceroy and party, leaders is issued. The Delhi correspondent of the British Associated 1 ress says that Lord Linlithgow’s negotiations to reach an agreement with the Indian Congress have reached a deadlock. The correspondence between the Viceroy and the Indian leaders leyea s that the main obstacle is a failure predominantly by the Hindu Conoress and Moslem League to settle their differences Lord Linlitlwow sent a letter to Mr Gandhi and Dr Rajendra Prasad (Congress leaders) and Mr .Jinnah (Moslem League leader) offering Cabinet seats to Congress and Moslem League representatives, but the replies were in the negative.

LORD LINLITHGOW’S SURVEY

The statement . issued by Lord Linlithgaw is as follows: — “The discussions' which are taking place between representatives of the Congress Party and the Moslem League have not ended in agreement. No one can regret more than I do that this should be the case, and I think it is only proper, as the issues involved are so important, to recall the history of the last few weeks.

“War was on September 3. In a broadcast that night I appealed to all parties and sections in India to co-operate in its prosecution. On the following day I saw Mr Gandhi in Simla, and I discussed the whole position freely with him. I similarly took immediate steps to see Mr M. A. Jinnah as representing the Moslem League. Nor did I fail to see the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes. Thereafter the general question came up for consideration before the Congress Working Committee and the working committee of the Moslem League.

‘•The Congress Working Committee met on September 15. It condemned Nazi aggression in decisive terms but postponed its final decision to allow for full elucidation of the issues at stake, the real objectives aimed at, and the position of India in the present and in the future, and it invited Britain to declare in unequivocal terms what were her war aims and how those aims would apply to India and be given effect to. “Mr Gandhi, in expressing his full agreement with the Working Committee's statement, remarked that he had been sorry to find himself alone in seeking that whatever support was to be given to the British should be given unconditionally. MOSLEM ATTITUDE “The working committee of the Moslem League on September 18 similarly asked 'if full effective and honourable co-operation of Moslems is desired’: that a ‘sense of security and satisfaction’ should be created among Moslems, and referred in particular to the position of Moslems in the Congress provinces and to the necessity for consulting Moslems fully regarding any change in the existing constitution and securing their consent and. approval. “I .now again got in touch with Mr Gandhi, Mr Jinnah, and the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes. I decided that, given the great divergence of view which clearly existed between 'the two major political parties in British India. I must satisfy myself as to the trend of feeling in the country. In

pursuance of that objective I interviewed more than 50 people representing all parties, communities, and interests.

“While those conversations were proceeding the All-India Congress Committee on October 10 passed a resolution repeating the demand of the Working Committee for a statement by the British Government of its war and peace aims. They also demanded that India should be declared an independent nation and that the present application of this status should be given to the largest possible extent. “I reported my conversations in detail to the British Government which, at a time of overwhelming pressure, had been devoting the closest attention to the problems of India. It was in the light of profound consideration and long discussion that, on October 18, I made a declaration on behalf of the British Government. BRITISH PROPOSALS “That declaration emphasised, first, that Dominion status remained the goal for India; secondly, that the British Government was prepared to reconsider the scheme of the present Act at the end of the war in consultation with leaders of opinion ,in India; thirdly, that the British Government attached importance to associating public opinion in India with the prosecution of the war, and that for that purpose it contemplated the of a consultative group, details of which were to be settled after I had further consulted with party leaders. “The announcements in my statement are of great importance. Their importance has been belittled but they represent points of real substance. “The debates in Parliament which followed on the publication of my statement brought out another important point—the readiness of the British Government, if certain conditions were secured, to associate Indian opinion in a still closer and more responsible manner with the conduct of the war by a temporary expansion of the Governor-General's Executive Council. “But the reception in British India both of the declaration and of the subsequent debates in Parliament was. as far as the Congress Party was concerned. definitely hostile. The Congress Working Committee on October 22 passed a resolution to the effect that my declaration was entirely unsatisfactory, and called on Congress Ministries in the provinces to resign. “The Moslem League, on the same day, asked that certain doubts should be removed and complete clarification of my declaration secured, subject to

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