PLEADING THE CAUSE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1923, Page 7

PLEADING THE CAUSE

TWO IMPRESSIVE SPEECHES

VISCOUNT PEEL ON INDIA'S RIGHTS.

(REUTERS TELBGRAU.) (Received 2nd November, noon.) LONDON, Ist November. The. text of the speeches at the Imperial Conference on the status of the Indian Empire have been issued. Viscount Peel (Secretary of State for India) emphasised that a solution of the 151'oblem was esseritial for the preservation of tlie unity of the Empire: OpiiK ion in India was completely unanimous regarding the matter, because Indians regarded the disability under which their countrymen laboured elsewhere in the world as a brand of social inferiority rSJe^J l6d that India haA contributed 1,100,000 men and over £200,000,000 for the war. India was sitting in the Inv penal Conference 6fi equal terms with the Dominions, and was accepted by the League of Actions 1 as one of the eight greatest industrial States of the world. It was the intention and ambition of Indians to share the glories of the British Empire. If opinion itt India, was disregarded, how could India be expected to'co-operato wholo-heartedly in tha great work of consolidating this "Empire? Ihfi scope of tho problem, apart from South Africa, was not very great. There were 2000 Indians in Australia, 6CO in New Zealand, and 1200 in British Columbia. Viscount Peel reaffirmed what he had stated at the Conference in 1921 in regard to India's -complete acceptance of thd Dominions' right to determine the composition of their, own communities, and urged the Dominions to consider the matter generously. Justice and expediency combined to make an appeal which was surely irresistible. The time had come when these disabilities should bo specifically removed. "A PLACE IN THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD" Mr. Sapru (India) said that he was fighting the cause of his country as a subject of the King fighting for a place in the Kings household. He would not be content with a place in his stables, Indian allegiance to the Throne was a real, living thing. If that allegiance was shaken, the foundations of the entire fabric would be shaken, with consequences which it would be'difficult to over-estimate. The one function of the Imperial Conference wae to bring about a good understanding between the units of the Empire and strengthen the ties, uniting them. If the Conference failed to achieve that, then it failed to justify its existence. Indians and the Indian Government had received the Kenya decision with the-utmost dismay, and felt that a serious blunder had been iriado. llie Indian Government would not accept tlie decision as final. There were abbut 1^ million Indian settlers elsewhere in the Empire, and they were subjected in many places to grave political and economic disabilities. He praised the Government of New Zealand for treating the Indians on a footing •of equality, so that Indians could live there as fellow-citizens. In honour ho appealed to Mr. Bruce to co-operate in methods to remove the disabilities Buffered, by Indians in Australia. Mr. Sapru said his most difficult task was regarding South Africa, where 161,----000 Indians suffered severe economic handicaps. Regaring the mandated territories, he declared that Indians could not acquiesce iii any position that made their j status inferior to what it was when the Germans administered the territories. There was a growing sentiment in India against emigration. ' They did not want the nation, outside India, to appear as a nation of coolies. There was plenty of scope for Indians in India, and therefore the Dominions need not fear or! that- bcofe. India Was absolutely unable to acquiesce in the present position. He earnestly appealed to' the DoiYiinions to join in devising methods to give effect to the principles embodied in the resolution.