HARD FACTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1942, Page 3

HARD FACTS

STATED BY SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS • GANDHI’S DEMANDS IN INDIA CHAOS AND CONFUSION INVITED. BRITAIN WILL NOT GIVE WAY TO THREATS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, August 5. Sir Stafford Cripps, in a statement in “The Times,” says: “Mr Gandhi asks Britain to walk out of India even if it means chaos and con fusion. What does this chaos and confusion actually mean?

“All government based on the existing Constitution would immediately cease; there would be no Viceroy, no Executive Council, no Civil Service of any kind; the Provincial Governors and legislatures would cease to function: there would be no authority to collect revenue and nothing with which to pay any Government service. In this chaos Gandhi proposes to establish a provisional Government, but as there is no electoral machinery and no law concerning representation, it would be at best no more than a Government nominated by himself and such other leaders of Indian opinion as might be willing to work with him. Others might defy Gandhi’s provisional Government. “Chaos in India at present would not only affect India but also the entire war against the Axis. Because of the difficulties inherent in an attempt to change the control in a country as vast as India, we recognise that a complete change-over to a new constitution is impossible during the war, and no practical suggestion has been advanced since I left India. “No one will expect Britain or the Government of India to give way to threats of violence, disorder and chaos. Indeed, the representatives of large sections of Indian opinion have expressly warned us not to do so. We make no threats, but we must assert our duty to India, to the minorities, and to the United Nations to preserve law and order till the end of the war, when we will give, as promised, full opportunity for the attainment of Indian self-government. “It is not yet too late for the Indians to decide upon rapid and ordered progress. The British people are as determined upon Indian self-government as are the Indians themselves. We ask for patience, not because we want to delay, but because the hard facts of war make the change impossible at present.”