FUTURE OF INDIA

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 182, 1 May 1931, Page 9

FUTURE OF INDIA

Outlook for Conference OPTIMISTIC REVIEW Peace Desired by People HINDU-MOSLEM TROUBLE Official Wireless. Rugby, April 29. Lord Peel (Conservative), opening the debate in the' House of Lords on India, invited the Government to indicate the personnne! and scope of fhe resumed meeting of the Round Table Conference. •If Mr. -Gandhi was to be the. sole representative of Congress, he said, it was to be noted that from tlie recent meetings at Karachi, it did not appear that the views of x Congress were unanimous or homogeneous. He urged the importance of safeguards, specially for minorities, and expressed anxiety at the present state of communal relations. Lord Reading (Liberall said that the substance of safeguards and reservations, as stated by him to the Committee, which had been accepted by the Government and pronounced for by the Prime Minister, were part and parcel of the whole question and part of the promise or expressions in favour of responsibility. Cawnpore Massacres. Referring to the Cawnpore massacres, lie asked what steps were being taken to prevent a recurrence of such incidents and, dealing with the recent warnings of Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency, Governor of the Punjab, about the spread of discord, he appealed to the Government to give the Viceroy the fullest assurance of its support in any measures lie might wish to take. In doing so, it would have the support of both political parties and the country as a whole. Lord Snell, Under-Secretary for India, said that the Government proposed to invite the Indian delegates to London to resume the work of the Federal Structure Committee, and the Govern-ment-hoped that the Committee’s deliberations would make progress here during the summer. The Indian representation on the Committee was to be the same, but the Government was considering whether it would not be desirable to add to it representatives of certain interests not directly represented on the original Committee. A definite statement as to personnel could not be made until Lord Willingdon had had time to consider the matter. Discussion of Problems. The Government’s plans contemplated bringing the problems which had been entrusted to the Federal Structure Committee under a further discussion. The specific heads of inquiry referred to the Committee when it sat in London were intended broadly to covey collectively the whole field of the constitution and the .powers of a Federal or Central Government of the type contemplated by the Government. The plans sketched out in the Committee’s two reports left much of that field unexplored. The Government hoped that a further session would enable it, if not to complete the work, at all events to make specific progress towards its completion. The'Government had no definite information as to the reception of individual rulers not present at the London Conference towards the scheme of Federation. Question For Themselves. The increase of ill-feeling between Hindus and Moslems was a matter inherently delicate and the solution of it was primarily for Indians themselves. All the Government could do was to reiterate what was placed in the fore-' front of the Prime. Minister’s declaration that the new Constitution must contain such guarantee as was required by minorities to protect their political liberties. and rights. That was one of the basic conditions on which not only the Government but all parties at the Conference took their stand. The time was much too short since Lord Irwin’s 1 conversations with Mr. Gandhi to form any competent opinion of the effect of the agreement on trade movements, and he had no reason to think. the undertaking was being disregarded, although certain difficulties had arisen which were receiving the attention of the Government of India. There was a widespread desire through India for peace, and. while there were difficulties ahead, the Government saw nothing to justify a mood of pessimism. Tlie situation required qualities of both patient and tolerant understanding.