“DANGER OF COLLAPSE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 February 1947, Page 5

“DANGER OF COLLAPSE”

CONGRESS AND LEAGUE NOW “POLES APART” NEHRU’S LETTER TO VICEROY LONDON, Feb. 7. The Congress Party has asked the Viceroy (Lord Wavell) to define the position of the Moslem League in the interim Indian Government. The Congress viewpoint is that the interim Government and the Constituent Assembly are inseparable parts of the system proposed by the British Cabinet Mission. The League, therefore, should not be allowed to remain in the Government while refusing to join in constitutionmaking. The New Delhi correspondent of The Times commmenting on the Congress Party’s representations, says the facade of a coalition Government, which was never very convincing, has now been split wide open, and the edifice is clearly in danger of collapse. The correspondent suggests that the Moslem League Ministers will not resign until ejected. Nehru’s Letter Emphasising that Mr Nehru’s letter to the Viceroy" has further widened the breach between the Moslem League and the Congress Parly the correspondent says that Mr Nehru has definitely put before the Viceroy and' through him before the British Government the view that since the long-term and short-term constitutional plans are inseparable, the Moslem League’s refusal to enter the Constituent Assembly make their position in the interim Government untenable. “This view is shared by the six Congress and three minority members of the Cabinet who feel that the League’s obstructionist spirit towards constitutional proposals stultifies whole coverance of India and reduces the so-called coalition to a farce,” adds the correspondent. “They therefore wish thrown upon the British Government the onus of deciding that the League has put itself out of court and of calling upon its members to leave the interim Government.

“The League members have no intention of resigning unless and until they are ejected from the Cabinet; The League also feels that it is incumbent upon the British Government to hold the Congress Party’s qualified acceptance of the Cabinet Mission’s plan as invalid and therefore to declare the Constituent Assembly illegal.” Fundamental Question

“Were the British Government to accept either of these two contentions, the logical implication would be that the Cabinet Mission’s plan must be held to have failed, and that the attempt to hand over power to a combination of the two parties who together would draft a new constitution for India .must now be abandoned. Whether the British Government is prepared to admit this implication and to-seek to implement India’s independence through one party alone or whether it can possibly postpone its decision until the Constituent Assembly is due to meet again in the hope that the Moslem League carl be persuaded to change its mind is a fundamental question which can be decided only in London. “What is certain,” adds the correspondent, “is that Congress and the Moslem League remain poles apart and cannot bring themselves at this stage to compromise or co-operate for the common working out of India’s destiny.” ___________