AN ALL-INDIA FEDERATION

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 144, 14 March 1931, Page 7

AN ALL-INDIA FEDERATION

Clear Objective of Conservative Party NEED FOR CONFERENCE REOPENING Gandhi May be Among Congress Delegates CHURCHILL REMAINS A RELENTLESS CRITIC (Rec. March 13, 5.5 p.m.) British Official Wireless. Rugby, March 12. A statement of the Conservative attitude toward the India problem was made in the House of Commons to-day by Mr. Stanley Baldwin, who assured the Government that though the party was uncommitted, it was pledged to an honest attempt to carry out the work of the Conference. In the course of the debate the Government’s desire to reopen the conference was stressed. Mr. Winston Churchill criticised severely the Viceroy-Gandhi agreement. Opening the debate, Mr. Baldwin reminded the members of his party that it had recognised that the. Empire was a living organism. It was in a constant process of evolution, and it could not be supposed that India alono was static.

Mr. Baldwin declared that the Conservative Party stood exactly where it did on January 26, when a statement which had not yet been challenged, was •nade by Lord Peel. It stood exactly where it stood in the speech which he delivered last week at Newton Abbot, in the course of which he said: “Our main objective is clear, namely, the objective of an all-India Federation. But when we have stated our objective, we must not forget that many grave difficulties have to be surmounted before we can attain it” He had then added that what they had at present was only framework. The details were not filled in, and many of them would present serious difficulties. Excitement Over Nothing. Referring to what had happened in the Press within the last 48 hours, he said that there had been a great deal of excitement about nothing. It was perfectly obvious that after the conclusion of the conference the Government must decide the next steps for continuing its work. One suggestion advanced for his party’s consideration involved sending delegates to India, and his view on that subject was shared by the colleagues he consulted, including the four delegates who represented the Conservative Party at the London Conference, namely,, that at this juncture it was the business of the Government to take the matter in hand until the details were more complete. Referring to the conversations between the Viceroy and Mr. Gandhi, he deprecated the use of such words as victory and surrender. Such a conclusion of the conversations as had been reached could not have been reached in circumstances by any other Englishman than Lord Irwin. It was a great tribute to his character—a character which had given him a presitge in India that nothing else could have afforded bin?. Newspaper Attacked. The question of the constitutional Government of India was by far the most Important and most difficult Imperial question Britain had ever had to face. More Important even than party unity was the unity of all parties on this subject. He w.as firmly convinced that writings such as appeared in the “Daily Mail” would do more to lose India for the Empire- than anything else. The ultimate depended not on force but on good-will, sympathy, and understanding between India and the Government of Great Britain, and the great work of Lord Irwin was that he, after many years of suspicion, bridged the gulf by ability and character. Mr. Baldwin’s chief passages were cheered, particularly the reference to the “Daily Mail” and the striking peroration: “If there are those and if they are a majority in our party, who would approach the subject in a higgling, grudging spirit, who would have forced from their reluctant hands one grudging concession after another, in God’s name let them choose a man to lead them.

“If they are in a minority, let them at least refrain from throwing difficulties in the way of those who have undertaken an almost superhuman task, on the suc- . cessful fulfilment of which depends the well-being and prosperity and duration of the whole Empire.” Practical Difficulties. In reply, the Secretary for India, Mr. Wedgwood Benn, said that it was the earnest desire of the Government to continue with the least possible interruption the constitutional discussions of the Round Table Conference. There were important practical difficulties in the way of sending a Parliamentary delegation to India, and there was much preliminary work which the Indians themselves must undertake in the particular issues left open by the Minorities Sub-Committee. The Government would seek the cooperation of the leaders of every party in re-establishing contact with the Ini dian side of the Conference, and as soon J as the India delegates, including the re-

presentatives of Congress, were prepared for a discussion, they proposed to invite them to London to resume the work of the Federal Relations Committee. Belief and Delight. Mr. Baldwin’s words, he continued, would be read with relief and delight in India. It was understood that Mr. Gandhi’s policy was to substitute co-operation for non-co-operation, and he had said that he would strain every nerve to make the provisional settlement permanent. They hoped that the committee’s deliberations would progress here during the summer, and meanwhile expert investigation of the particular problems recommended by the Round Table Conference would be undertaken. By these means the whole problem would be, they hoped, ready for final discussion early in the autumn. Continuing the debate Mr. Winston Churchill (Conservative) expressed surprise that the agreement between the Viceroy and Mr. Gandhi should have been hailed as a miracle of statecraft. Doubtless Lord Irwin had made the bekt possible bargain, and the boycott and civil disobedience had been partially called off, but they could be restarted if Mr. Gandhi lifted his little finger. "Law-Breakers’ Victory.” Mr. Baldwin had described the agreement as a victory for moderation over extremism. It was really a victory fpr the law-breakers to whom hopes were held out that they would soon be law-makers. Lord Irwin’s actions for the past year had fostered Gandhi’s power to an inconceivable extent, and had raised the Congress leaders to a pedestal of eminence in the eyes of India’s disloyal elements as having inflicted on the Government such a humiliation and defiance as was unknown since the British first trod the soil of India. ■ Mr. Churchill said that he welcomed Mr. Baldwin’s recent announcement of the Conservatives' unwillingness to participate in a further conference in India. He entirely agreed with the leader’s reference to future procedure. They must face the facts. The London Conference had not solved a single major difficulty. The chances that an agreement which would unite all the sections in India would be ratified by, the British Parliament were of the slightest. “We are encouraging,” he said, “hopes in India which are nnrealisable. Opinion here and ill India should be prepared for the impending shock.” Feelings of Majority. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, closing the debate, claimed that a great majority in all parties united in standing by the work, spirit, and methods of the Round Table Conference. When in opposition, and when in office Labour tried to keep the problem of devising a constitution for India outside party politics, and would do everything it could to maintain the machinery which enabled the parties, to exchange views on the work done in the Round Table Conference going on either in India or at Home. The first thing to be done after the preliminary exploration was finished was to get the Federal Structure Committee together again. Already an invitation had gone to the Viceroy to do his best to arrange an early meeting of that committee in London. It was hoped that Mr. Gandhi himself would be with the Congress representatives. Baldwin Highly Praised. Commenting on the India debate, “The Times” says that Mr. Baldwin has seldom played a better part. “Certainly the vigour, courage and real statesmanship of his speech has given him a different position. , . . “His party has no need to trouble itself about a search for a successor. Even if it were to sink him to-morrow, he would go down with flying colours.” Lord Lloyd’s Warning. The “Daily Telegraph” says that Mr. Baldwin’s speech was a parliamentary success, particularly so in the passage in which he appealed to his followers to choose between his own policy and the policy represented by Mr. Churchill. Conservatives feel the fact that the Government has been compelled to abandon its intention to summon a round-table conference in India as a victory for common sense. It is considered that such a conference must have proved abortive. Lord Lloyd, speaking at South Kensington, said: “If we lose effective power of government in India we will lose all control in the Far East. Australia and New Zealand could not remain a portion of the Empire, even if they wished. Britain would become a small set of islands with a great past and a miserable present and future.” UNRULY VOLUNTEERS Clashes Occur in Bombay DEMAND FOR “GRATUITY” (Rec. March 13, 8 p.m.) Calcutta, March 12. Further clashes between disbanded Congress volunteers occurred in Bombay yesterday. Twenty were seriously in3OO volunteers, armed with sticks, took possession of the Congress premises, demanding the payment of £7 10/- as a “gratuity.” ' Parleys having failed, the volunteers returned later and stoned the Congress office and attacked the loyal volunteers, with bamboo poles. The Viceroy has promulgated an ordinance empowering the Burma Government to appoint special tribunals to try nearly 400 persons arrested in connection with the Burma rebellion. Earlier messages from Bombay indicate that the sudden release from prison of over 4000 Congress volunteers has seriously embarrassed the leaders. The volunteers were trained to disobedience and supplied with their needs by the Congress leaders, and were housed and clothed and fed. They are now faced with unemployment and no resources.