HOME RULE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18348, 3 April 1925, Page 9

HOME RULE.

INDIA'S ASPIRATIONS

A RESPONSIVE NOTE.

(BT CABLB— TMSS ABBOCIATIOK-COPTEIOHT.) (AUSTRALIAN AKD *.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

LONDON. April 1

A responsive note was sounded byLord Birkenhead (Secrcfary o'f State for India) during the course, of a debate on India in the House of Lord s in regard to the recent utterances of the Swarajist leader, Mr ('. R. I>as, in which the latter expressed abhorrence of political assassinations and violence in any form, as well as repression by the Government.

Lonl Birkenhead expressed a desire to join Mr Das and lay asido undue suspicion. He would hopefully watch tho results of Mr Das's appeal to his supporters. When we saw that revolutionary societies began to atrophy for want of monetary and moral support, and tho channels of communication between tho political and anarchical world effectively closed a new era would have begun in Bengal and tho need for what Mr Das called repression would have disappeared.

Lord Birkenhead emphasised, however, that all British authorities concerned in legislation for tho repression of crimes of violence in Bengal constants and justly repudiated tho intention or practice of repressing political opinion. He invited Mr Das to take further steps to co-operate with the Government in repressing violence. AU we desired, concluded Lord Birkenhead, was co-operation between British and Indian political parties, with a view to progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the Empire. Never, never would if bo reached by violence or desperate crimes.