INTERNAL CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1942, Page 4

INTERNAL CRISIS

SHAKING INDIAN CONGRESS

RESIGNATION OF MADRAS PRESIDENT.

DR. AZAD’S CRITICISM OF BRITAIN.

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, April 30.

A meeting at Allahabad of the 'working committee of the All-India Congress Party, having ratified the rejection of Sir Stafford Cripps’s proposals, faces a crisis which is shaking the party from top to bottom, says the New Delhi correspondent of the “Daily Express.” The resignation from the committee of Dr. Rajogopalachari, the Congress leader in Madras, has brought the situation to a head, and members of the party admit that the crisis may strengthen the hands of two men whom they regard as their bitter Opponents, namely, Dr. Jinnah, the leader of the Moslem League, and Mr Amery, the British Secretary of State for India.

Dr. Rajogopalachari resigned from the working committee after the Madras Congress Party passed the resolution of April 24, which he sponsored, calling upon the Congress, for the sake of India’s defence, to accede if necessary to the Moslem League’s demands for constitutional separation. The resolution drew criticism from Maulana Azad, the Congress President. ARMY & WAR INDUSTRY. In New York today Mr Graham Spry, personal assistant to Sir Stafford Cripps, said, that the Indian Army already numbered 1,000,000 men, and was increasing by the new recruiting of 50,000 a month. He added that Indian war industry was producing satisfactorily; ammunition was ahead of schedule, but there was a lack of tanks, artillery and aircraft. The door was still open for further British-Indian negotiations, he said. He explained that out of the total of 390,000,000 Indians, only 30,000,000 were politically minded, from which number there were 15,000,000 women and children, 5,000,000 Sikhs and Moslems, and only 10,000,000 orthodox Hindus; hence only 10,000,000 of the Indian population had expressed opposition' .to the proposals of Sir Stafford Cripps. Dr. Azad, in a speech at the opening session of the all-India committee, said it was not true to suggest that the .Cripps mission succeeded in changing the attitude of the Indian leaders to the war. Congress had not changed its attitude to the fundamental issue, namely, that only free India could defend herself. “We went to the limit in our efforts to secure a settlement, but clearly the British Government does not trust us,” he said. He made it clear that Congress would not make a further approach, but added: “Our differences with Britain should not drive us into welcoming the Japanese or any other aggressor. If we welcomed Japanese invaders it would seal India’s fate as a slave country till Doomsday. The defence of India is a matter of national selfrespect.”