HISTORIC CEREMONIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26542, 18 August 1947, Page 5

HISTORIC CEREMONIES

Change-over in India EXPRESSIONS OF GOODWILL Rec. 9 p.m. NEW DELHI, Aug. 16. Over 250,000 Indians watched Pandit Nehru hoist India’s national flag over the historic Red Fort in Old Delhi, over which the Union Jack had flown daily since the fort was recaptured after the Indian mutiny in 1857, when mutineers massacred more than 50 British men and women at the fort: Mr Nehru at the ceremony outlined the objectives of the National Government of India. It wished ill to none, but the interests of the long-suffering masses must come first. Every entrenched interest in their way must yield to them. The Government would change the antiquated land tenure system, promote industrialisation on a large and balanced scale, “thus adding to an equally distributed national dividend,” and it would institute great irrigation and hydro-electric projects. Like the British, the Indians love dignified pageantry, and all the ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the new dominion have i been most impressive, says the New Delhi correspondent of The Times. They have been marked from the Indian side by gestures of great admiration for Earl Mountbatten, who has enjoyed a veritable personal triumph, and by expressions of unfeigned goodwill not only towards Britain, but also to the west in general. For those who remember the past periods of bitterness and hatred, it marks a real transformation in relations between the British and Indian peoples.