EMPIRE FRONT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1942, Page 5

EMPIRE FRONT

PLANS FOR INDIA National Plea For Unity In Country's Defence United Jress Association.—Copyright. Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 22. Mr. Churchill's plans for consolidating the Empire front include a charter granting new powers of selfgovernment to India, says the Press Association's political correspondent, and he adds that London political circles believe that the Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, will soon leave the Air Ministry on a special mission to India.

A New Delhi message states that a non-party conference has passed a resolution supporting Marshal Chiang Kai-shek's appeal that Britain should transfer political power to India as soon as possible and also advocating that India's representatives on the British War Cabinet and Pacific War Council should be non-official and "representatives of the people."

When presiding at the non-party conference in Delhi, the Indian Liberal leader, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, demanded that the centre of political activity shift from Whitehall to Delhi. He said the Mogul in Whitehall should perform an act of self-abdication.

"It will not do for anybody in England to tell us that political power is now concentrated in the hands of men in authority in Delhi," he added. "They may exercise authority in local administration, but at every step we see the benumbing hand of Whitehall. This conference does not profess to advocate any scheme for a permanent Constitution for India, but it presses for changes in administration to enable India to do its best to support the war effort.

"I do not believe that, from 400,000,000 Indians, no man can be found capable of administering India's finances; nor that, if an Indian member for defence had been appointed at this juncture, he could have committed graver mistakes than those men in power have committed."

Gandhi's Appeal for Calmness

Emphasising that there is not the slightest cause for alarm or panic in India, Mahatma Gandhi, in an article in the Indian newspaper Harijan, said: "If we have learnt nothing worse from our contact with the British, let us at least learn their calmness in facing misfortunes. Failures do not dismay or demoralise the British. There have been reverses that some may have considered disastrous, but the British have the knack of surviving and turning them into stepping stones to success. For them it is a national game like football. The defeated team heartily congratulates the successful almost as if it was a joint victory, and drowns its sorrow at defeat in the exchange of glasses of whisky."

Pandit Jawabarlal Nehru, in a speech, said: "If tne power is transferred to Indians they will be prepared to take responsibility for India's defence even now, although we might not be able to do the things we could have done before." He regretted the continuance of the British Government's old attitude toward India, and reiterated that Indians were not looking for outside help in attaining their independence.

He said the Indian Government's notification exempting from duty defence supplies for China was the first evidence of an understanding between China and India.

The working committee of the AllIndia Moslem League, under the presidency of Mr. M. A. Jinnah, whose unanimous re-election has just been announced, adopted a resolution drawing the attention of Moslems to the growing danger of war in India and calling on them to be ready to face danger with equanimity, courage and fortitude.