BRITAIN RESPECTED IN INDIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25271, 25 August 1947, Page 8

BRITAIN RESPECTED IN INDIA

VIEWS OF SALVATJON ARMY OFFICER

’P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 23. “To-day in India there is no antiBritish feeling; on the contrary, there is a feeling of cordiality and respect. Britain has proved to India that she was sincere,” said Brigadier Bramwell Cook, Salvation Army, who returned to New Zealand recently after 15 years in India as a medical missionary. He was addressing a meeting of the Honorary Justices’ Association yesterday. Britain’s move in granting self-gov-ernment to one-fifth of the world s population had no precedent in history. It had been accomplished with comparatively little bloodshed, he considered, for the only disturbances had centred on boundaries of the two new States.

All British people in India did not have to leave, as many persons seemed to think, said Brigadier Cook. It was true that British rule must cease completely but foreigners were welcome in India and their help was needed in many fields, such as industry and social welfare. Missionaries were given every opportunity to remain and religious freedom was constitutionally guaranteed. A social as well as political revolution was taking place in India and on all *sides Indians were organising and striking to raise their pitifully low standard of living.