PROPOSALS FOR INDIA

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23602, 1 April 1942, Page 5

PROPOSALS FOR INDIA

Cripps Expecting Early Decision CONGRESS LEADERS’ ATTITUDE (Received March 31, 11 p.m.) (N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, March 31. At a press conference in New Delhi to-day, Sir Stafford Cripps said he hoped to gel a decisive indication to-day or tomorrow of the reactions of the main Indian communities to (ho British War Cabinet’s proposals for the future of India. He said he hoped to disclose on Thursday the broad outline of what he proposed to do. A message from New Delhi yesterday said that after the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress had considered the British proposals, a prominent Congress member said that not a single member favoured acceptance of the British proposals as they stood. Mr Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlial Nehru are to address the committee to-day before a final decision is reached. “Sir Stafford Cripps’s success in winning over Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is probably his biggest single achievement since hia arrival in India,” says the Bombay correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” “They are working closely together, and their collaboration is probably the key to Sir Stafford Cripps’s confidence that his mission will succeed. “Pandit Nehru is concentrating his efforts to swing the Congress Working Committee’s 12 members to Sir Stafford Cripps’s scheme. Five already support him. The others arc reported so far to oppose the plan. They want power to-day, inr stead of to-morrow, and also want control of India’s defence. Pandit Nehru feels that he can obtain the British War Cabinet’s approval for a gradual transfer of power during the war to Indians, who may be appointed to the Executive Council. “In the meantime, Mr Gandhi opposes Pandit Nehru, arguing that acceptance of the proposals would bring Congress to participate in the war against the Axis, causing the principle of non-violence to break down. Congress provides the key to the whole situation. If it accepts, the other organisations will accept.” Speakers at the Indian States’ Peoples’ Conference expressed the opinion that although the peoples living in the states formed a quarter of India’s population, they had been ignored in the plan for framing a Constitution. , The conference demanded an effective voice, and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Indian princes were given a determining voice under the present proposals affecting the states.

In a broadcast to the people of India yesterday afternoon Sir Stafford Cripps explained the British Government’s offer of Dominion-status to the Indian people. Sir Stafford said that the British Government wahted to make ' It quite clear that the people of Britain desired the Indians to have the fullest self-government, with a Constitution as free in every respect as that of Great Britain or, any of the Dominions. He pointed out that the forging of a new Constitution was far too important a matter to be hurriedly improvised in these troublous times. The British Government therefore proposed that immediately after hostilities ceased a Constitution-making body should be set up to frame a single Constitution for the whole of British India, together with such Indian States as might decide to join + he union. The provinces of India would be invited to take part in the Constitution-making. If some provinces were not satisfied with the proposed constitution they could remain out of it if they wished, and the same kind of self-government and freedom would be available to them, as for the union itself—complete self-govern-ment. “It is for the Indian people and not for any outside authority to decide under what form India will in future govern herself,” said Sir Stafford. “If the Indian people ask for our help it will of course be gladly given. Present Task Continuing, Sir Stafford asked what was to happen in the meantime. He was confident that in that great task the Indian people, of all races and religions, were eager to play their full part, but the task of organising to the full the military, moral, and material resources of India must be the responsibility of the Government of India with the co-operation of the people'of India. The British Government desired and invited immediate effective participation by the leaders of the principal sections of the Indian peoples in the councils of their country, of the Commonwealth, and of the United Nations. The Indian leaders would thus be able" to make a constructive contribution to the task essential to the future freedom of India. The most vital and difficult question was that of the contrasting communities among the Indian peoples. Instead of going into the historical origins of these difficulties it was necessary to face them as present facts. In the Indian sub-continent there were as many peoples and races as in the great sub-continent of Russia. The British object was to give the Indian peoples full self-government with complete freedom as to how they organised to form a single united country. Others thought that India should be divided into three or more separate countries. Others advocated a wide provincial autonomy. New Constitution ‘‘We ask you, therefore, to come together. all religions and races, in the constitution-making body as soon as hostilities are over, to frame your own Constitution,” he continued. ‘‘We will specify the form that this body will take unless —and this is an important point—the leaders of the principal sections of Indian opinion agree between themselves meanwhile upon some other and better form.” In the past Britain had waited for different Indian communities to come to a common decision as to how a Constitution for a self-governing India should be framed. Because there had been no agreement amongst the Indian leaders, the British Government had been accused of using this fact to delay granting India freedom. Now Britain was giving the lead that hp'd been asked, and it was in the hands of the Indians, and the Indians only, whether they would accept that lead and so attain their own freedom. Sir Stafford said he was confident that the constitution-making body would make just provision for the protection of minorities. Defence of India On defence, Sir Stafford emphasised that defence, in this wide-flung war, could not be localised in any one country. If the British Government were to undertake full responsibility for the conduct of naval, military and air defence, India must be dealt with by it as part of the world effort in which it was now engaged, and the direction of that defence must rest in the hands of the Commander-in-Chief, a War Cabinet, and high staff officers, but the Government of India must also have an effective share in the defence council. “We have, therefore, invited a representative Indian to be appointed to the War Cabinet and to the Pacific War Council,” he concluded. “That is one way in which India will have full say in the councils of the Commonwealth and the United Nations as an equal partner, and when it comes to making peace India will appoint her own-representatives to the Peace

Conference, and so make her contribution to the building of a. new world order. . , , “I am confident that nothing further or more complete. could be done towards the realisation of just terms and the demands of the Indian people. Our proposals are definite and precise. If they are rejected, there will bo neither time nor opportunity to reconsider the matter until after the war, and it will be a bitter blow to friends of India all over the world. I personally am convinced of _ the soundness and completeness of these proposals.”, ... i , Opinion in London In London the deepest interest in the plan is.displayed.on all sides... There is general agreement that it is a statesmanlike anove by the British Government to offer a precise and complete plan lor full Dominion status for. India immediately the . war ends. . “The Times” says: “Even the least favourable critics will do justice to the patient and sincere attempt on the part of men of varying opinions to surmount the legacy of the past and to find a new and more fruitful approach to the problem, surmounting the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding. . . , , - "On the British side credit for the step which has been taken and lor its ultimate success —if success is achieved - —must be accorded primarily to two men—Sir Stafford Cripps, whose initiative and determination brought the plan to birth and whose record of devoted sympathy with Indian needs and aspirations paved the way for its lav-• curable and lair-minded consideration by the Indian people, and Mr Churchill, who had the insight and imagination to seize this critical moment for a departure from policy which is at once revolutionary and restorative.” Newspapers in India have welcomed the British Government’s plan. The' Bombay “Chronicle" says that to a large extent the proposals satisfy national demands. The Calcutta “Statesman” says: "This indeed is the wprffcv news the Japanese have had." REACTION IN U.S. LONDON, March 30. In the United States the proposals for India have been warmly welcomed. Mr Sumner Welles, Acting-Secretary of State, said to-day that the • United States was watching the outcome of the offer with earnest hope. Mr Wendell Willkie described the proposals as generous, and Miss Ann McCormick, in the “New York Times,” calls the plan “the largest voluntary disbursement of power Great Britain has ever made.” TREATY WITH BRITAIN Policy of Egyptian Government PRIME MINISTER’S SPEECH (Received March 31, 7 p.m.) ■ CAIRO, March 30. “The policy of the Government of Egypt will be to save Egypt from the horrors of war and carry out the and the spirit of the Anglo-Egyptiaft treaty in an atmosphere of confidence and equality while not abandoning any of the rights which the treaty ensures to Egypt,” said Nahas Pashb, the Prime Minister of Egypt, in the Speech from the Throne at the opening of Parliament. , “To carry out the clauses of the treaty and meet the necessities of defence, the country's communications will be improved. The Government is giving special attention to the army and will supply it with the most modem arms and material. . “Numerous aerodromes are being established throughout Egypt to link various parts of the Nile valley and draw tighter the bond linking Egypt with her neighbours." The Government’s programme includes air-raid precautions, the. provision of shelters and compensation for air-raid victims. , Sweeping reforms include lower taxation for the poorer classes, a tightening up of conscription, an increase in local production, notably of wheat, and the restriction of imports to save shipping space. , , Nahas Pasha also declared that the time had come to pay more attention to the strengthening of friendly I®*®” tions between Egypt and her sister nations in the East.