NO AGREEMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20954, 6 November 1939, Page 8

NO AGREEMENT

INDIA AND WAR CONGRESS AND MOSLEM AN ABORTIVE CONFERENCE (Omctal wireless? (Received Nov. 6, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Nov. 5 The Marquess of Linlithgow has issued to the press the following statement: “The discussions which are taking place between representatives of the Congress and the Moslem League have not ended in an 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 declared 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 Mahatma Gandhi in Simla, and I discussed the whole position freely with him. I similarly took immediate steps to see, Mr Jimnah, as representing the Moslem League. Nor did I fail to see the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes. “Thereafter the general question came 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 a final decision to allow for the full elucidation of the issues at stake, the real objectives aimed at, and the position of India in the present and 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. Gandhi’s Regret “Gandhi, 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 the British should be given unconditionally. “The Working Committee of the Moslem League on September 18 similarly asked if the full, effective and honourable co-operation of the Mussulman 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 the Moslems fully regarding any change in the existing Constitution and securing their consent and approval. Leaders Consulted “I now again got in touch with Gandhi, Jinaah and the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes. I decided that, given the great divergence of view which clearly exisited 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 over fifty people, representing all parties, communities ahd 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. That declaration emphasised, firstly, that Dominion status remained the goal for India; secondly, that the British Government was prepared to reconsider this 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 Cor that purpose it contemplated the formation of a consultative group, details of which were to be settled after I had further consulted with the party leaders. Importance Belittled “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 of British India, both of the declaration and the subsequent debates in Parliament, was, as far as Congress concerned definitely hostile. The Congress Working Committee on October 22 passed a resolution to the effect that my declaration was entirely unsatisfactory and called the Congress Ministries in provinces to resign. “The Moslem League on the same clay asked that certain doubts should be removed and the complete clarification of my declaration secured, ; subject to which they empowered j the' President, if satisfied, to “give |an assurance of co-operation and I support on behalf of the Mussulmans i of India to the British Government I for the purpose of the prosecution of the war.” “I next invited Gandhi, Dr Rajendra Prasad, and Jinnah to come to see me and discussed the whole position with them frankly. 1 had already, in previous conver- | sations, discussed as with almost all j visitors from various aspects the possibility of an expansion of the | Governor-General’s council. I now

told them that if in regard to association at the centre we had been unable to go further than in a consultative group it was because of lack of prior agreement between the major communities, such as would contribute to harmonious working in the centre. Gulf Between Parties “I added that the manifestos issued on October 22 by the Congress Working Committee and the Moslem League had shown only too clearly that a gulf exisited between the attitude of these two great parties.”