INDIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24491, 27 December 1940, Page 4

INDIA

In view of the fact that previous attempts to bring the constitutional deadlock in India to an end have failed, it is not easy to believe that the appeal which " friends in the British House of Commons" have addressed this week to the people of India will meet with success. It is an appeal that is reasonable as well as opportune. But it seems merely to re-state what MrAmery said, a few months ago, shortly after his assumption of the office of Secretary of State for India. A time when Great Britain is fighting for her very existence is not one in which she can fairly be expected to take part in a constitutional settlement that can only in the most favourable circumstances be effected with a great deal of difficulty and in the establishment of highly intricate machinery for the political control of India. While Mr Amery clearly pointed this out, he declared, definitely and authoritatively, that the Government would most readily pssent to the setting up, as soon as possible after the war, of a body representative of the principal elements in the national life of India in order to devise the framework of a constitution. He also undertook that the Government would assist, to the extent of its power, in hastening decisions on all relevant matters. It is a matter for regret that the fairness of this declaration by the Secretary of State was not recognised and appreciated as it deserved to be. The British Government has

accepted without question the principle that India should be accorded the status of a dominion and enjoy all the rights of selfgovernment which that status confers. But it is for the people of India themselves to hammer out the details of their system of government within the framework that is planned for them. To impose upon them a constitution that was not devised by themselves would be beyond the sphere of practical politics. They must themselves decide the scheme upon which their political institutions shall be founded. Admittedly it is a very embarrassing task that must be undertaken .by them. It is one in the performance of which they must all be prepared to exhibit a liberal measure of tolerance and goodwill. The antagonisms that exist, however, between important sections of public opinion in India are so acute that the reconciliation of them can, it seems clear, be brought about only through the emergence of a spirit of forbearance which has so far not been evident. A fresh approach, differing from any that has yet been made in India, to the whole question of constitutional reform is desirable. And this will be possible only in a new atmosphere in the creation of which the "friends in the British House of Commons" hope to have a share. It has been confidently stated, that moderate opinion in India would like to see the constitutional issue put in cold storage for the duration of the war. Unfortunately moderate opinion does not count for a great deal at the present time.. It is the extremists who dominate the stage. It is they who must be persuaded that the appropriate time for the consideration of an enlarged plan of self-government is the time when the Empire has withstood the attack which the Nazis have delivered against it, and has driven her aggressors into submission.