BRITAIN PRAISED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22439, 20 September 1947, Page 5

BRITAIN PRAISED

AUTONOMY FOR INDIA TRIBUTE IN ASSEMBLY (10 am.) NEW YORK. Sept. 19. In a speech today before the General Assembly, Mrs. Pandit, leader of the Indian delegation, praised Britain for giving India self government. ‘ln the past I have not hesitated to criticise British policy towards my country, but on this occasion, with equal readiness, I desire to place on record before this great assembly the warm appreciation of the Indian people of the spirit which moved British statesmen to make a voluntary surrender of authority over India. "This is an example to those other nations which bear towards their colonies the same relationship that existed between Britain and India until yesterday.” Mrs. Pandit referred to the present “disturbing, unhappy world” and said there was apprehension that the world, as a whole, might be plunged into still deeper distress. Looming ominously over the whole situation was the fact that the great Powers, instead of coming closer together, were drifting further apart. She warned that unless the Indian-South African dispute on the treatment of Indians in the Union was settled by the Assembly, the conflict might spread to a wider sphere.