INDIA’S FUTURE IN RELATIONS WITH THE EMPIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 October 1948, Page 8

INDIA’S FUTURE IN RELATIONS WITH THE EMPIRE

LONDON, October 6.

“Although an Indian Government spokesman was. reticent about the attitude which India will take on, her continued membership of the British Commonwealth, Indian newspapers and politicians agree that India should be ‘a sovereign independent republic,’ ” says, the New Delhi correspondent of The Times, commenting on the departure of Pandit Nehru for the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference.

“The last meeting of the Congress Working Committee in New Delhi is believed to have confirmed the party’s determination to make India a sovereign independent republic, even if this means severing the link with the British Crown. The predominant political opinion in India is that the country must follow roughly the same line as Eire and repudiate its allegiance to the Crown, substituting for it some legal link which would preserve existing relations. “Indian newspapers point out that the Prime Ministers’ conference will face the existence of three new Dominions of brown races—lndia, Pakistan and Ceylon—and they assert that it will test the good faith of Britain and the older Dominions to see how far they are willing to make allowances in receiving the new Dominions on terms of equality, and without reservations.

“Several Indian papers say that whatever expression is used to describe the new group of countries, the term ‘British,’ which is now prefixed to the Commonwealth of Nations, should be dropped. India feels that she will be entitled to raise the issue of the racial discrimination practised by Australia and South Africa.

“Indian papers agree that the world situation is drifting towards conflict, with the position in the Far East steadily deteriorating. On the question of defence strategy and economic and technical aid, India realises her dependence on close relations within the Commonwealth.”