The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES.” GISBORNE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1947. INDIANS MUST SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22439, 20 September 1947, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES.” GISBORNE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1947. INDIANS MUST SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS

The massacres in the Punjab recently attained a scale and ferocity more appalling than anything contemplated by those who feared the worst when the partitioning of India was attempted. The moment of calm in which the transfer of power took place is now shown to have been an illusion. The rejoicing and the flag-waving are over, and old racial animosities have been rekindled. From the scene of some of the worst of the bloodbaths there has even been a heartfelt cry for the return of the British Raj. But it would he a mistake to condemn partition or to regard this slaughter as proof that only British power could keep the peace in India. The forces of change had gathered irresistible strength. The temperate and experienced leaders on all sides— British, Hindu, Moslem and Sikh—were driven to a choice in the full knowledge that there was no answer that would satisfy all creeds and dispel all antagonisms among 400,000,000 people. The immensity of the crisis which now confronts them may bring the new Dominions of India and Pakistan to a vivid recognition of their common danger. They must act together if they are not to go down in the most terrible civil war of all time. At the outset they have been warned in the grimmest terms of their responsibilities, and they must ally themselves at once against the common enemy of fanaticism. Sir Zafrullah Khan, head of the Pakistan delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, blames the Indian Government for not taking immediate steps to control the situation and declares that Pakistan must seek satisfaction through the United Nations. In his opinion, something worse than civil war has already started; if the United Nations fail, Pakistan will have to resort to direct action, and a grave threat to world peace will result. Although it is probable that the United Nations can help—if only through sound advice and some degree of temporary supervision—it remains a fact that in the long run only a more promising display of racial unity within the new Dominions will ease the tension. A sense of national harmony and responsibility cannot grow in a few months. The only real hope is that Indians may be shocked into a state of truce by the evidence of recent, rioting, and that the idea of a peaceful federation of creeds and classes may he given a chance to grow. There can be no clearer warning of the price India may have to pay for continued disunity than the slaughter in the Punjab. What has happened there could he repeated all over India. Sooner or later the crisis will have to be faced by the Indians themselves. They alone can solve it.