INDIA AND THE WAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 58, 18 December 1940, Page 5

INDIA AND THE WAR.

MR GANDHI’S ATTITUDE.

STATEMENT BY THE VICEROY

CALCUTTA, December; IG.

"Mr Gandhi’s ' civil disobedience campaign dcr®" not represent the true feedings of this country,” said the Viceray of India (the Marquess of Linlithgow);, addressing the Associated Chambers of Commerce.

“Mr Gandhi thinks that both Con : gressmen and •' non - Congressmen should urge the people to refrain from assisting the war effort because- they might involve - India’s participation in bloodshed. We cannot subscribe to that proposition. “I am convinced that India is united in her detestation of Hitlerism aiid all it stands for.” , '

Lord Linlithgow said he sympathised with the idea of a National Government for India, and added that he was satisfied that the offer Britain made on August S represented, more closely than any other scheme, the wishes of a National Government.

Speaking in the House of Commons on August 8, the Secretary of State for India (Mr L. S. Amery) said: “Dominion status for India remains Britain’s aim. The differences between the Indian communities, which have* prevented the achievement of national unity, can no longer postpone the proposed expansion of the Viceroy’s Council nor the establishment of a body associating Indian public opinion more closely with the General Government. “The Viceroy is inviting a number of representative Indians to join his council. He is also establishing a War Advisory Council representing States and other interests in India as a whole. Full weight will be given to minority views. In any revision Britain could not contemplate the transfer of her present responsibilities for the peace and welfare of India to any system of government whose authority large and powerful elements directly deny, nor could she be a party, to the coercion of such elements into submission to such, a Government. •

“Britain sympathises with the contention that the framing -of any new scheme should primarily be the responsibility of the Indians themselves, and should originate ' from Indian conceptions of the social, economic, and political structure to which Britain wishes to see the fullest possible expression given, subject to Britain’s obligations to India, of which the fundamental constitutional issues could decisively be resolved, but the Government would very readily assent to the•creation, with the least possible delay, after the war, of a body representing; the principal elements of India’s national life with the object of devising a. new Constitution. The Government will lend every aid to hasten decisions.”