INDIA AS COMPANION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 13

INDIA AS COMPANION

CONCILIATION BEST s j •* PROSPECT BRIGHT (British Official Wireless.) ' j ' (Received 19th March, ,11 a.m.)' |' RUGBY, 18th March. In a speech during the debate oa India, Lord Sankey reviewed the events leading up to the Hound Table Conferonce, the results of the Conference, and their effect in India. He said that the delegates to the Conference were not - plenipotentiaries. It was their re- • sponsibility to examine facts and make '. suggestions. The Federal Structure SubCommittee's report was therefore purposely drafted so as to leave many ques- ' tions open, but in his view there wa» no problem in India that was insoluble; .', It was perfectly possible to' draft a-, Federal Constitution fair and just to ' everybody, and, with the precedents before them, the' combined- wisdom of the East and West could and would do so. 'After reviewing the proposals put forward by the Conference, Lord Sailkey addressed himself to the future policy. Did,they r he asked, desire an India, a companion by consent/or one seething.with sedition?' If they chose" conciliation, they would' gain nearly all they wished and lose, but little. • If repression, the military expenditure would go up, revenue returns and trad* . ing receipts would go down, and difficulties would, increase.. , "If Britain's traditional policy is , pursued," he continued, "then will fol^ / low settled government, material prosperity, and the reign of law. Finance, defence, .law ,and order are undoubtedly important, but I am anxious for something more than > the triumphs of our trade;' I am jealous for the reputation of our, statesmanship. It is by their moral actions, not by their material successes, that Empires are judged at the bar of public' opinion and by, . the verdict of history. . ' . "Let us grant a Federal Oonstiution to India and let our hope b* that everything in it may be so ordered and settled upon the best an* surest foundations that peace and > happiness, truth and justice, may nourish as abundantly in India as they have done here at home." PARTY LEADERS' VIEWS. ?> Lord Peel (C.) said that, he could" _ not help feeling that during the, last ' few'months the Government had been too ready, he would not say, to,apologise for, but not to take a stand on our position ia India," which gave us right* and laid upon, us duties and responsi* , bilities. , ...... Lord Reading (L.), referring to the . Irwin-Grandhi agreement, said that the conditions in India had very" greatly, improved from, the moment that agree- ' ment, which was brought abont by the Round Table Conference, was reached. The Conference therefore had enabled peace to be declared in India. ' COTTON TRADE COMPLAINT. A statement, issued to-day, by the Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers' Association ana the Federation of Master Cotton Spinners' Associations; expresses disquiet at the provision in the recent agreement between' the "Viceroy of India and certain political leaders by which' picketing is to be regarded as a legal form of propaganda, if peacefully carried out, for economic and not political purposes. Although nomin-' ally directed against all foreign goods, tho boycott had been anti-British rather than anti-foreign, and one of the worst features was the fact that it was sup-

ported by individuals who had extensive interests in' Indian cotton textila •industries and who were undoubtedly,' profiting by it. •, '