RULE IN INDIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1942, Page 4

RULE IN INDIA

LARGELY IN NATIVE HANDS SURVEY BY SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS. COMPLETE SELF-GOVERNMENT AFTER WAR. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 23. Though he was emphatic that the formation of a Provisional Government in India while the war was in progress was impossible, the Lord Privy Seal, Sir Stafford Cripps, in an article written for the "New York Times,” and also published in London, reiterated the British Government’s promise of self-government for India after the war, and pointed out that a large measure of self-government was already enjoyed. British officials now in India, he stated, helped the Indian Civil Service to administer the affairs of 389,000,000 people of various races and cultures. British officials and troops were no more numerous than those required to administer and police the Panama Canal Zone. Indians had been steadily taking over the government not only in the administrative services but also in the political direction of all India and the provinces of British India. Since 1937 the franchise in British India had risen from a few millions to 36,000,000, and the powers of provincial governments were comparable to those of an American State or a Canadian province. Four Indian provinces had native Cabinets and Premiers, and complete control of internal affairs was in their hands.

It was only because the Congress Party had withdrawn from the responsibilities of power that control was not now exercised by Indians in all provinces. The Indian share in the central Legislature had steadily increased till representation was now 11 Indians to four British. It was this Government that decided to take action against the Congress Party, and that action, though approved, had not been suggested by the British Government. Members of the Viceroy’s Council were drawn from various sections in India. These men were ardent nationalists and not mere mouthpieces of Britain. They were conducting the government of India according to their convictions of vzhat was in the best interests of the whole country. Two Indians were on their way to take their places in the British War Cabinet, and they would have full voice on all questions relating to the conduct of the war as it affected India. Arson and looting, another message states, are still occurring at Benares, and the police opened fire in several instances. Four rioters and four police were killed at Dhampur, and two rioters were killed at Cholapur.