REDUCTION OPPOSED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21962, 5 March 1946, Page 3

REDUCTION OPPOSED

INDIA’S STERLING FUNDS

“BRITAIN'S SACRED DEBT” (10 a.m.) LONDON, March 4

"Any discussion concerning the scaling down of the sterling debt would embitter British-Indian relations and hinder the forthcoming British Cabjnet mission to India, ’ said the Congress Party leader, Mr. Sardar Patel, in Bombay.

The sterling debt was Britain's sacred obligation, resulting from goods and services which Britain took from India during .the war without India's consent a.t prices forced down by control. Any Indian who supported the proposed scaling down was a .traitor.

The British Ambassador, Lord Halifax, writing for the Foreign Policy Association publication under the heading of "Restless India,” say s that Britain cannot grant independence to India until a responsible Government is established.

"Indian self-government is possible only if responsibility passes directly to the nands of an Indian Government that is accepted by those who it aspires .to rule and are able to hold together 'the State framework while the machine is being run in. "We may have to wait for some time before we see India's new constitution finally established. Both British and Ir.tians during the trying time of waiting will need all the goodwill and patience they can muster if the new vessel is not' to be shipwrecked before it is launched.”