INDIAN RESOLUTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1942, Page 5

INDIAN RESOLUTION

RULE BY WHITEHALL

NEW DELHI, February 22

The non-party conference adopted a resolution today expressing profound dissatisfaction that all real power in India was still concentrated in British hands. It affirmed that at a time when India's safety was gravely imperilled the British policy of keeping the Indian people in a helpless condition should forthwith be abandoned.

The resolution urged "an immediate declaration that India is no longer' a dependancy, subject to Whitehall rule, and that henceforth India's constitutional position and powers shall be identical with those of the other selfgoverning units of the British Commonwealth; also that the Indian Executive Councif'shall be reconstructed for the duration of the war as a truly National Government functioning on the basis of joint, collective responsibility, and consisting entirely of nonofficial members subject to the Crown, and not prejudicing the position of the Commander-in-Chief as the executive head of the defence forces."

The conference also asked that popular Governments should be introduced in all the provinces where the Governors are still ruling.

The working committee of the Moslem League adopted a resolution opposing the proposals of the non-party conference, and stating that if Britain accepted the proposals Moslem India would doubtless revolt, because the proposals meant a transfer of all power to a central Government established on the basis of India as a single national unit enjoying Dominion status, and thereby introducing a Congress or Hindu Government.