THE INDIAN PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21241, 23 January 1931, Page 7

THE INDIAN PROBLEM

WORK OF THE CONFERENCE. WHITE PAPER TO BE ISSUED. EARLY DEBATE EXPECTED. (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, January 21. Now that the Indian Conference has ended, the Indian delegates are returning home to explain in greater detail the prospects that it has opened for a new Indian Constitution and to continue, it is hoped, the efforts to reach a settlement of the communal difficulties. The Indian problem promises also to be in the forefront of the political discussions in this country. A White Paper on the conference will, be issued by the Government in a few days, and a debate on it will probably take place in the House of Commons next week. After the conciliatory speech at the last plenary session by Lord Peel, the declaration of Mr Baldwin is awaited with especial interest. Last night the Prime Minister, during a broadcast speech on the conference, said; “ Although the conference has ceased its sittings in Loudon, work will be at once begun upon its findings and its unsolved questions. Upon the foundations laid ■ a superstructure, complete in detail, will have to be built.” He emphasised that the holding of the conference was not a sign of weakness by the British authorities in the face of the civil disorders. These, indeed, had placed difficulties in the way of its taking place. The conference was the sequel to assurances given by Kings and Queens, Viceroys, and British statesmen, that increasing powers of self-government should be given gradually to India. “ The conference delegates are returning home not only with political proposals in their pockets, but with what is far more valuable, the conviction that Britain is genuinely enlisted in the cause of Indian selfgovernment, and is only concerned with how it can be carried to practical success.” Mr Lloyd George, speaking at the Liberal dinner to the Indian delegates, associated the whole of the Liberal Party with Lord Reading’s declaration. He said that, while the goal was- a long way off and the difficulties here and in India could not be under-rated, he was convinced that public opinion, without distinction of party, would be prepared to go the whole length of the conference proposals if all went well in India during the next few months. Criticism of the proceedings at the conference was expressed last night by Mr Winston Churchill (who said the eloquent and well-meant speeches at the closing session might not represent a very large body of British and Conservative opinion I and Lord Brentford (who foresaw in the event of self-government being granted to India, riot, bloodshed, and the destruction of all that Britain had done for the well-being of millions of Indians, who are not politically minded, and desire to live in peace, happiness, and security).