INDIAN PROBLEM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 118, 20 April 1931, Page 7

INDIAN PROBLEM

RETIRING VICEROY. FIVE DIFFICULT YEARS. ENTHUSIASTIC PRESS TRIBUTES. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received April 20, 10.30 a.m. , RUGBY, April 18. Lord Irwin left India to-day for England at the conclusion of what the King, in a message of appreciation and congratulation, described as “five years of exceptional difficulty” as Viceroy. Many tributes to his services to Britain and India during that momentous period are contained in the Press of both countries to-day. The Manchester Guardian says: “He will be remembered in India not because he went there as the representative of a great power, but because in the discharge of his duties as Viceroy he exemplified all that was best in the civilisation to which he belonged, and in the religion he followed.” The Daily News, referring specifically to his truce negotiations with Gandhi, says: “He hazarded the enormous personal influence which he had won in India in the cause of peace, and history will reeorde that in so doing he did an inestimable service both to India and to Great Britain.” Regarding Lord Willingdon, the News believes that he will be a worthy successor to Lord Irwin and says that few living men are better qualified than the new Viceroy to discharge this task.

The Daily Herald says: “Lord Irwin had the imagination to realise, while others had still failed to realise, the need for a bold policy of satisfaction and appeasement. He has had the courage to carry that policy through. He leaves India with a reputation high among that of the greatest Viceroys, and with the good wishes of millions for his future.”