INDIA AND THE COMMONWEALTH

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25638, 29 October 1948, Page 7

INDIA AND THE COMMONWEALTH

DEMAND TO BECOME REPUBLIC “ CHANGE OF FRONT ” BY COMMENTATORS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, October 28. Summing up Indian reactions to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ discussions in London, the New Delhi correspondent of “The Times” says: “It is apparent that there has been a change of front by Indian critics, who before the London conference opened were asserting vehemently that India had no alternative consistent with her desire to be a ‘sovereign independent republic’ but to. leave the Commonwealth. “These same critics now realise that Britain and the older Dominions are ready and willing to make such adjustments as would enable the three Asian countries (India, Pakistan, and Ceylon) to reconcile their newly found nationhood with membership of the Commonwealth. "It is generally felt that the next move is up to the Indian Constituent Assembly, which meets again early next month to consider the draft Constitution. Several Indian newspapers hint that In the light of the London discussions the Assembly will have to decide whether the goal of a republic is a genuine demand calling for immediate attainment, or whether it was adopted at a time when feeling against Britain was not sufficiently balanced, and can therefore be kept in abeyance. “But this is not to say that prevailing Indian sentiment is any different on the need for India to assert her complete independence, if necessary by breaking her link with the British Crown It merely means that Indian political commentators now appreciate better how irrevocable a step secession from the Commonwealtn must necessarily be. and are therefore less forthright in demanding it.” A Bombay message says that the national executive of the Socialist Party of India has directed its representative in the Indian Constituent Assembly to demand the termination of India’s association with the Commonwealth. The Socialist Party Executive is in session to consider the draft constitution for India, to which it proposes to move about 60 amendments.