The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1930. THE INDIAN OUTLOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 162, 11 July 1930, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1930. THE INDIAN OUTLOOK.

For <S.e cause that. lacks assistance, For the aorong that needs resistance, For the future in the distanoe t And the good that ice car} do.

The statement on Indian affairs submitted to the House .pf Commons by the Viceroy is a frank and courageous attempt to deal with the difficulties of the situation. It sets forth clearly and forcibly the dangers which the present Government has to face, and the embarrassments by which any Nationalist administration that might succeed it would be confronted, and it draws certain irrefutable conclusions. But though this document must appeal strongly to logical and practical Europeans, we may well doubt if it is calculated to produce much impression upon the Nationalist leaders themselves. In dealing with the resistance to constituted authority now masquerading under the title of "civil disobedience," Lord Irwin rightly lays stress upon the danger to which India may,be exposed in the future as a consequence of this organised attempt at coercion for which Gandhi has made himself responsible. As the Viceroy puts it, the Nationalists should realise that to assure the ignorant masses of India that "it is patriotic and laudable to refuse to obey the laws or to pay taxes" is to preach a very dangerous doctrine, which, if carried into effect, might paralyse and destroy a native Government in the future. Lord Irwin apparently felt that it would be a judicious course to abstain in this appeal from any reference to the violence and bloodshed that this "civil disobedience" campaign has caused. But it is to be feared that ths argument which he has here employed is somewhat too abstract to make much difference to the native point of view.

As regards the proposed Round Table Conference which the Nationalists will not take seriously, the Viceroy assures the people of India that it will be more than an opportunity for further discussion. It is to be regarded as "a joint assembly of representatives of both countries, on whose agreement precise proposals to Parliament may be founded." He quotes Sir John Simon's own words to show that the report of the Statutory Commission was never intended to be utilised as a means of "settling and deciding the Constitution of British India." All that it has done is to provide a "fair, honest and sympathetic" view of the- situation to Parliament and the people, and on this basis, with the co-operation of the Round Table Conference, a new system of administration may be built up. Lord Irwin emphasises in particular the concession of Dominion status at the close of a period of probation, and his repudiation of any "permanent inferiority" in India's ranking as a member of the British Empire may do something to conciliate the more moderate and intelligent section of the Nationalist party. ; . ;