Waley-Cohen Creates Furore In India

Press, Volume C, Issue 29624, 21 September 1961, Page 3

Waley-Cohen Creates Furore In India

(N .Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, September 19.

The Indian Prime Minister (Mr Nehru) had “blotted his copybook” by speaking out on the arrest and imprisonment of Earl Russell, the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen) said in London today.

Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen had just returned from a seven weeks and a half tour of Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.

During a seven-hour stopover in Calcutta yesterday Sit Bernard ’ Waley-Cohen said he had "found to his horror” that Mr Nehru had been reported as endorsing Lord Russell’s action in going to prison. The 89-year-old Lord Russell was released from prison yesterday after a seven-day sentence for his part in a ban-the-bomb sitdown demonstration in London. Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen said that Mr Nehru’s action was not conducive to good relations between Commonwealth countries. “Mr Nehru’s attitude of ‘Well done, old boy, I wish you had done it more’ is wholly unsuitable for a Commonwealth Prime Minister,” Sir Bernard WaleyCohen said at a news conference. “That Mr Nehru had sympathised with a person whom the United Kingdom Government had deemed necessary to put in prison is quite out of place,” Sir Bernard WaleyCohen said. At a luncheon in Calcutta yesterday Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen publicly rebuked Mr Nehru for “interfering” in Britain’s internal affairs.

His remarks were widely carried by the Indian newspapers and have caused a local furore.

In London today, Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen said he would have been "failing ki his duty as chief citizen of London” tf he had not rebuked Mr Nehru. He .was not sorry, • but glad, he had made his remarks. “Had I known it would have had these consequences I would have made it the more forcefully,” Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen said. The Lord Mayor said that as Mr Nehru had accepted the freedom of the City of London on one of his visits to London he had put himself under the obligations of all freemen of the city. “Mr Nehru’s remarks were contrary to all practices and

customs of Commonwealth Prime Ministers and called for a rebuke,” Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen said. In Calcutta, the West Bengal State Governor, Miss Padmaja Naidu, has lodged a strong protest with the British High Commissioner against Sir Bernard WaleyCohen’s remarks, ■ the Associated Press reported. Communist members in the West Bengal State Council today raised what they called the “deplorable behaviour” of Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen. The House disallowed discussion. stating that the remark was made in bad taste and that the Governor had already lodged a protest.