TALKS IN INDIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1942, Page 3

TALKS IN INDIA

HOPES OF CONCLUSION TODAY CONGRESS & MOSLEM LEAGUE. EXTENDED DISCUSSIONS. LONDON, April 8. Sir Stafford Cripps hopes to be able to have his postponed Press conference in New Delhi tomorrow, lie expects them to indicate whether the British proposals have been accepted or rejected by the principal political leaders. The working committees of the Congress Party and the Moslem League have been in session again today and are meeting once again tomorrow morning. The Congress Party committee has spent over forty hours discussing the original British proposals and modifications. It is hoped that both parties will conclude their talks in time to enable Sir Stafford Cripps to make his promised statement tomorrow.

DEFENCE PROBLEM AND RESISTANCE TO AXIS AGGRESSION. REPORTED CONGRESS VIEWS. NEW DELHI, April 7. The working committee of the Indian National Congress has decided that the amended defence proposals submitted by Britain are unacceptable, says the British United Press correspondent. The Congress president, Maulana Azad, will communicate the decision to Sir Stafford Cripps tomorrow. Pandit Nehru tonight is believed to have told President Roosevelt’s envoy, Colonel Johnson, of the decision. It is understood that Britain offered to accept an Indian Defence Minister on the executive council with certain limitations which were not acceptable to Congress. It is hoped that Mr Roosevelt will intervene on behalf of the United Nations, since it is realised that the problem is not merely the domestic concern of Britain.

Even if the problem is not resolved, Congress has decided to' urge the Indians to resist aggression with all the -means at their disposal and to face the invader calmly and resolutely. Such a message will be published immediately it is possible to release the Congress decision on the British offers.

APPROVING COMMENT IN AMERICAN PRESS. 'ON STATEMENTS BY LORD HALIFAX. (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 8. The American Press strongly stresses Lord Halifax’s statement that, in the event of a rejection of its proposals, the British Government would be obliged to do its own duty, without the assistance or co-operation of the larger organised Indian parties. The Press also stresses Lord Halifax’s observation that: “Should this be so, many of India’s best friends here and elsewhere would deplore the fact that Sir Stafford Cripps had failed to win agreement, but sad as they might be, they would find no difficulty in deciding where the responsibility lay.”

DEFENCE FORMULA

SAID TO BE GENERALLY ACCEPTABLE. SETTLEMENT CONSIDERED POSSIBLE. (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) NEW DELHI, April 8. It is understood that the Congress Working Committee has discussed a new Defence formula which is generally acceptable to Sir Stafford Cripps and prominent Congressmen and that Colonel Louis Johnson (President Roosevelt's envoy) was associated with its drafting. A settlement is now considered not improbable, and it is believed that it will permit of the functioning of a National Government.