The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1930. THE INDIAN SUSPENSE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 June 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1930. THE INDIAN SUSPENSE

I tin Indian Commission has finished its work, and its report will shortly he issued 1 his will he the most important report on India issued in our time, . considers the Auckland Star; perhaps, indeed, the most important in all Bri-tish-Indian history. No such close ex- . am illation of the political problems of India has ever been made, and on the findings of the Commission the policy of the British Government presumably will he based, No more momentous decision in respect 4o the overseas Empire could he required of a Government than this The welfare of four hundred million people is at stake, a vast population to whom for many generations Britain has been guardian. Under British rules internecine wa>‘ has been put down, and weak communities protected has been (Lrans- ■ ormed into a kind of League of Nations; real justice has been dispensed; the wealth of the country has been increased ; and famine and disease have been successfully fought. It is the greatest achievement of the British people in the govern moil t of alien races, probably the grimiest of all such itchieye.nieuls in history. And 10-day Britain is faced with the question : What extension of self-government shall he given now to this congeries of people, divided liv innumerable fissures of race, religion am! speech, who are in the accepted sense of the word not a nation at all? In the meantime, as our news shows daily, the extremists in India are taking matters into their own hands, and a Labour Government n England, some of whoso supporters sympathise with the Nationalists to the limit, is giving ‘•’full and unstinted support" to the Viceroy in the measures he is taking to deal with disorder. It a commonplace that the responsibility of o flic a has sobered the Labour Party. India by itself should he enough to sober anybody. It is easy to over-estimate the importance of these Indian disturbances. As the Secretary for India said the other day, the vast majority of the Indian people go about their

daily work in peace. But the danger is there. Non-co-operation and revolt by violence have been organised, and Lord .Reading, who was Vice my some .tears ago, regards this organisation as die new and serious feature of the .situation. Gandhi has sunk into pure anarchism. Professedly a paJJisl, lie has in Ranted passions which, if given opportunity to work, would lead to dreadful bloodshed. Regardless of plain facts, he declares that British rule has brought about the moral, material, cultural and spiritual rum of Ins country, ami he calls on the people to destroy "this Satanic Government,” which is "so monstrous that it is a sin to allow it to exist- any longer.” It does not make England’s task any easier to ki-ow that this ‘‘long unqualified 'hymn ol hate” is lauuchc.il iti the name ol love and iion-vioience This is sufficiently ironical, but the irony extent.*.) to England. There the cause of In.Uian independento is supported with true doctrinaire rigidity, "is tins Government to carry on the dirty wor.i ol British Imperialism?” asked a member of the Labour Party when the Secretary for India, was speaking this week. It would be interesting to know whether Air Brown has any conception of the appalling results that would follow if Britain withdrew from India, but perhaps he would say "Damn the consequences!” Air Fenner Brockway, another member of the party, an interjection from whom led up ; to Air Brown’s question, is an out-and-out pacifist who went to gaol during the war. That Germany overran Belgium anil part of France apparently meant nothing to him; certainly lie would not lift a finger to stop her. But ho sympathises with the Indian Nationalists. If they have to use force he will apparently,- regret it, but he will still sympathise with them, He and Gandlij are really fellow anarchists, The* contradiction in Air Fenner B ruck way's case appears lo he explained, at least- in part, by the fact that the Indian Nationalists, like the Germans in 1914-18 are enemies of England. This type is, in strict truth, the frond of every country hut its own. Fortunately such men are in a minority in the Labour Party, and it is highly probable that as the more j level-headed and responsble members of | the party learn more about India tbev will be less disposed to take risks there.