PEACE IN INDIA.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20225, 1 May 1931, Page 11

PEACE IN INDIA.

BRITISH POLICY. DEBATE IN HOUSE OF LORDS. (.B&ITISEX OFFICIAL YTI#ELESS ) (iieceived April 30th, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, April 29. Lord Peel, in opening tho debate in the House of Lords on India, invited the Government to indicate the personnel and scope of the resumed meeting of tho Round Table Conference and asked if Gandhi was to be the solo representative of tho Congress. It -was to be noted from recent meetings at Karachi that it did not appear that the views of Congress were unanimous, or homogeneous. He urged the importance of a safeguard specially for minorities, and expressed anxiety at the present state of communal relations. Lord Reading said that the substance of the safeguards and reservations, as stated by him to the committee, which had been accepted by the Government and pronounced for by the Prime Minister, were part and parcel of the whole question and part of the promise, or expressions in favour of responsibility. Punjab Discord. Referring to the Cawnpore massacres he asked What steps had been taken to prevent a recurrence of such incidents, and, dealing with the recent warnings of Sir Geoffroy de Montmorency, Governor of the Punjab, about tho spread of discord, ho applied to the' Government to give tho Viceroy the fullest assurance of their support in any measures he might wish to take. In doing so they would have tho support of both political Parties and the country as a whole. Plans of the Government. Lord Sneli, Under-Secretary for India, said that the Government proposed to invite tno Indian delegates to London to resume the work of the iTedefal Structure Committee, and the Govtitn- | ment hoped that tho committee's deliberations would make progress hero during tho summer, Indian representation on the committee was to be tho same, but the Government was considering whether it would not be desirable to add to it representatives of certain interests not.directly represented on the original eonimittee. A definite statement as to the personnel could not be made until Lord Willingdon had had time to consider the matter. The Government's plans contemplated bringing the problems which had been entrusted to the Federal Structure Committee under further discussion. The specific heads of enquiry reforred to the committee when it sat in London were intended broadly to cover collectively tho whole field of the constitution and powers of a Federal or Central Government of tho type contemplated by the Government. The plans sketched out in the committee's two reports left milch of that field Unexplored. The Government hoped that a further session would enable it, if not to complete the work, at all events to make specific progress towards its completion. Racial 111-Feelihg. The Government had no definite information as to tho reception of the individual rulers not present at the London Conference towards the stlieme of federation. The increase of 111-feeling between the Hindus and Moslems was a matter inherently delicate and the solution of which was primarily for tho Indians themselves. All the Government could do was to reiterate whftt was placed in tho of the Prime Minister's declaration. The neW, constitution must contain such a guar antee as required by the minorities to protect their political liberties and rights. That was one of the basic conditions on which not only the Government, but also all Parties at the conference took their stand. The time was much too short since Lord Irwin's Conversations which Gandhi t.o form any competent opinion of the effects of the agreement on trade movements, and he had no reason to think that the undertaking was being disregarded, although certain difficulties had arisen Which wefe receiving the attention of the Government of India. There a widespread desire through India for Mace* and while there were difficulties ahead the Government saw nothing o ■justify a mood of pessimism. Iho situation required qualities of both patient and tolerant understanding.

MOSLEM FESTIVAL. NO DISTURBANCES. (UJtITIU PRSB9 ASSOOIATIOK— BT EktCTJtIC TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT.) DELHI, April 27. ' 'Bairam,' } the great Mohammedan festival, passed off quietly throughout the country, contrary to expectations, ttrobably bocause of the drastic precautions following the riots m Cawnpore.