NEW HOPES RAISED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26541, 16 August 1947, Page 7

NEW HOPES RAISED

Ultimate Unity in India

CHANGED CONCEPTION OF PUBLIC SERVICE Rec. 10.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 15. British rule in India has reached its term, but it eannot yet be viewed in perspective, says The Times in a leader. Nevertheless, some claims can be advanced and some tributes paid without fear that posf terity will dispute them. The paper adds, that the formal unity of India created by the British has not survived their withdrawal, but the decision of the two dominions to set up a Joint Defence Council under Lord Mountbatten’s chairmanship is evidence that in face of common danger India would still be one. Nor is this the sole extent of the sense of unity that will still persist in the partition. If the new order succeeds and flourishes, abiding unity will grow because the influence of the British example has ' created in Indian minds a new conception of public service. In the past, Th% Times points out, the Indian genius has found its characteristic expression in contemplation remote from everyday affairs. To-day, India can command the services of men and women wholly responsive to the rieeds of the hour. Lord Mountbatten, The Times says, yesterday praised the public spirit of the Indians who had striven to check the deplorable Lahore disorders and dwelt upon “ the spirit of co-operation and compromise ” which had inspired the Indian leaders. These are British qualities, The Times adds, and the political ideas and constitutional methods for reconciling liberty with order which are now guiding the deliberations of the assemblies at New Delhi and Karachi are of British origin, are, indeed, Britain's special gifts to mankind. That Indian minds are now enriched by them is the result of quiet, persistent work maintained for generations by British men and %omen who, under the Indian sun, and at the sacrifice of domestic happiness, did their duty unflinchingly before God and man.

“ Twilight of Colonialism ”

Rec. p.m. NEW YORK, Aug. 14. The New York Times, in a leader on India’s new status, says, “In an historic event equal in importance to most momentous happenings of our w crowded days, the British flag is being hauled down to-day all over India, and 300 years of British rule over that teeming sub-continent and its ancient civilisation comes to an end in a manner far nobler than it began. The British Empire, which has held dominion over a-quarter of the globe and a-quarter of mankind, now enters into a process of self-liquidation which removes from it what has always been its backbone and richest prize. “Yet this dropping of an anachronistic pomp and circumstance holds out promise of transforming an Empire of Unwilling subjects info a voluntary association and commonwealth of free men. The real significance of the day, however, is that it marks the twilight of colonialism everywhere. The whole world of Kipling’s imagery sinks into oblivion. The .captains and the kings who strutted ' across the scene on India’s history depart, one hopes, never to ireturn. “ Yet at its the paper adds, “ it is only fair to rdfnember that, with all its grandeur and misery, colonialism has performed an historic mission in bridging the cleavages between different civilisations and that the British

Raj in particular has not been without benefit to the Indian people. It has left India more united and more peaceful than that seething land of many races, many creeds, and many m-

vasions has ever been, and it has advanced the democratic idea of popular self-government much further in India than countries with their patriarcnal traditions have been able to develop within themselves.”