VICEROY REVEALS NEW PLAN TODAY

Northern Advocate, 2 June 1947, Page 5

VICEROY REVEALS NEW PLAN TODAY

(Received 11.30 a.m.) NEW DELHI, June 1. THE Viceroy (Viscount Mountbatten), in addition to Mr Nehru and Dr Patel (Hindus), Mr Jinnah and Mr Liaqat Ali Khan (Moslems) and Sardar Baldev Singh (Sikh), has also invited the Congress President (J. B. Kripalani) and the Moslem Communications member (Abdur Rab Bishtar) to meet him tomorrow to hear. the British Government’s final plan for transferring power to India.

Dr Khan Sahib, Congress Premier of the North-West Frontier Province, said if India was divided the North-West Frontier would not join Pakistan but, as an independent democratic state, would establish most friendly relations with Russia.

Dr Sahib added that any tampering with votes in the event of a plebiscite in the province would cause bloody revolution.” /

The Prime Minister of Travancorc (Sir Ramaswamy Ayer) said that until division of India was settled it was better for the Princes to keep aloof from controversies.

The Prime Minister of Hyderabad and a member of the Indian States’ Negotiating Committee (Sir Murza Ismaio) said he believed the conscience of the country demanded that India' should remain in the British Commonwealth as a free and equal partner, that all should have association in a central union and that Moslems should have effective representation in the Central Cabinet and Legislature.

Reuters says that as neither Congress nor the Moslem League yet has seen the details of the British plan no positive development or change of policy is expected to emerge from the meetings today of their respective working committees. Congress still stands for a united Indian union under the British Cabinet Mission’s plan of May 16, 1946, while the Moslem League insists on Pakistan.

“I have no doubt that only on these lines can a solution agreeable to, Hindus, Moslems and Sikhs be reached,” he said.

The Congress Working Committee has specially invited the Socialist leader (Jai Prakash Narain) and the Sikh leader( Sardar Baldev Singh) to its meeting today.