HOPE OF AGREEMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21229, 27 September 1940, Page 8

HOPE OF AGREEMENT

VICEROY AND GANDHI THREAT TO NAZISM (United Press Assn.—Eler. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 25 The Secretary of State for India. Mr L. S. Amery, in a speech to the Overseas League in London, referred to the meeting which Mr Gandhi will have with the Viceroy of India, the Marquess of Linlithgow, in the next few days. “One can only hope,” said Mr Amery, “that the outcome of the discussions may be an agreement consistent both with Mr Gandhi's conscientious objections to war in general and with the Viceroy’s no less conscientious conviction and duty to allow nothing to stand in the way of India’s wholehearted effort to play a part in the struggle, which concerns her present welfare and security and all the ideals her peoples hold dear.” Dealing with the constitutional position. Mr Amery said the Act of 1935 was still in essentials the work of the British Government and Parliament, and was based on the existing structure of the Indian Government and inspired by British ideas. The main permanent framework of the future constitution of India as a Dominion was now a matter for the Indians to settle for themselves. Open to Re-examination “The whole constitutional field, relations of the various parts and elements of India to the whole, methods of election and representation. all these matters are open to re-examinaton,” said Mr Amery. “Only, as in the case of every Dominion, or for that matter of any federation in the past, there must be that measure of agreement, of consent, and necessarily, therefore, of compromise, between the main constituent elements that have in future to live and work together, which is a preliminary condition to free selfgovernment. “In this matter, Britain has made clear one of the essential implications of India’s future status, while imposing upon Indians one of the first responsibilities of that status. It is obvious that a change so farreaching both in the structure and in the very basic authority of India’s Government cannot take place at a moment when the whole Commonwealth is in the throes of a struggle for its existence. Nazis’ Attack on Religion Mr Amery added that the Nazis 5 doctrine was a direct attack upon the spiritual basis of all religion. It was as profoundly opposed to Islam, with its insistence on the quality of all men before God, and on the supreme virtues of justice and mercy, or to Hinduism, with its deep-seated hatred of violence and cruelty, as it was to Christianity. “The onslaught of the Nazis threatens the soul of India as it threatens ours, and there is no Indian who does not realise that menace,” said Mr Amery.