RULE OF INDIA

Grey River Argus, 24 February 1942, Page 5

RULE OF INDIA

NEW CHARTER British Proposal MR CHURCHILL’S PLANS. [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] LONDON, February 22. A special correspondent of the Press Association says':— Mr Churchill’s plans for consolidating the Empire front include a charter granting new powers of selfgovernment to India. London political circles believe the Air Secretary (Sir A. Sinclair) will soon leave the Air Ministry.for a special mission to India. i A New Delhi message states: The non-party conference passed a resolution supporting Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s appeal that Britain should transfer political power to India as soon as possible, also advocating that India’s representatives on the British War Cabinet and the Pacific Council should be non-official and representatives of the people.” : The Muslim League has unanimously. re-elected Mr Jinnah as president. A Bombay message says: Mr' Gandhi, in an article in "Harijan”, emphasising that there is not the slightest cause for alarm or panic in India, says: “If we have learnt nothing worse from our contact with the British, let us at least learn their calmness in the face of misfortunes. Failures do not dismay or demoralise the British. There have been reverses which some may have considered disastrous, but the British have the knack of surviving, and turning them into stepping-stones to success. War for them is a national game, like football. The defeated team heartily congratulates the successful team, almost as if it is a joint victory, and drowns the sorrow of defeat in an exchange of glasses of whisky.” Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of th e Congress Party, said in an earlier address in Calcutta that the visit of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek to India would affect the history of both India and China. For long years he had dreamed of India and China holding together, and he now saw this in th e future. “Chiang Kai-shek is greater than a captain of war. He has proved himself a leader of- men,” said Pandit Nehru. In Chungking the Secretary-Gen-eral .of the Chinese People’s Party (Mr Wu Chen) said that China was determined to give her best efforts, not only to the protection of the Burma Road, but also of Burma as a whole. Even the cutting of the Burma Road would not slop the war in China.

Dominion Status

WANTED AT ONCE. NON-PARY CONFERENCE ATTITUDE. (Rec. 10.30.) NEW DELHI, Feb. 23. The Non-Party Canfsrence 'here adopted a resolution expressing profound dissatisfaction at the fact that all real pov/er in India is still concentrated in (British hands. The resolution affirmed that, at this time when India’s safety is gravely imperilled, the British policy of keeping the Indian people in a helpless condition should forthwith be abandoned. The -resolution urged an immediate declaration that India is no longer a dependency, subject to Whitehall rule; that, henceforth, India’s constitutional position and powers shall be identical with those of the other self-governing units of the British Commonwealth; also that the Indian Executive Council shall be reconstructed for the duration of the war as a .truly National Government, functioning on the basis of joint collective responsibility, and consisting entirely of non-official .members, subject to the Crown, and not preiudicin 0- the position of the Com-mander-in-Chief as the executive head of the defence forces. The conference has also asked that popular Governments should be introduced in all of those provinces where Governors are still ruling. MOSLEMS OBJECT TO A SINGLE INDIAN GOVERNMENT. NEW DELHI, February 23. The Moslem League Working Committee passed a resolution opnosing the Non-Party Conference proposals, and stating that if Britain accepted its proposals, Moslem India would doubtless revolt, because their proposals meant the transiei of all power to a centra government established on a basis of India as a' single national- unit, enjoying Dominion status, thereby introducing Congress or Hindu government.