DEBATE IN INDIA

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 81, 14 March 1931, Page 6

DEBATE IN INDIA

ME CHURCHILL'S SPEECH LAW BRIyAKEKS ENCOURAGED LONDON, Mareli 12. Mr Clmrcliill expressed surprise that an agreement between the Viceroy and Gandhi should be hailed as a miracle of state-craft. Doubtless Lord Irwin /made the host possible bargain. The boycott and civil disobedience had been partiallv called -<'i'. but could be restarted if Mr Gandhi lifted ! ; : little finger. Mr Baldwin had dcse.-..,0d the agreement as a victory of moderation over extremism. It was really ;i victory for the law-breakers to whom hopes were hold out that they would soon be law-makers. Lord Irwin's actions tor the past year had fostered Mr Gandhi's power to an inconceivable extent and had raised the Congress members to a pedestal of iminence in the eyes of India's disloyal elements, as having indicted on the Government such humiliation and defiance as had been unknown since the British first trod the soil of India. , • ■ Mr Churchill welcomed Mr Baldwin s recent announcement that the Conservatives were not willing to participate m a further conference in India. He entirely agreed with bis huler's reference to future procedure, in which tliej must face the facts. The London Conference had not solved a single major difficulty. The clianc.es of an agreement which would unite all sections ot India and be ratified by the British Parliament were slight. PEIME MINISTER'S SPEECH INDIA OUTSIDE POLITICS LONDON, March 13. Mr Mae Donald, in closing the debate in the Commons, claimed that the great majority of all' parties were united in'standing by the work, spirit and method of the Round-table Conference. When in opposition and when in office, Labour had tried to keep the problem of devising a consitution for India outside party politics and would do everything it could to maintain the machinery which enabled parties to exchange views on the work dom> at the Round-table Conference. The first thing he had done after the preliminary ' exploration was finished was to get the Inderal structure committee together again. Already an invitation had gone to the Viceroy lo do his best to arrange an early meeting of that committee in London. He hoped that Mr Gandhi himself would be with the Congress representatives.

MR BALDWIN COMMENDED BRITISH PRESS COMMENT (Times Cable) , LONDON ,-March 13. The Times says that Mr Baldwin has seldom played a better part. Certainly ho has the vigour and courage of real statesmanship. His speech has given a different position and his party has no need to trouble itself about a search for a successor. Even if it. were to sink him to-morrow, lie '.vonld go down with flying colours. ■ The Daily Telegraph says: "Mr Baldwin's speech was a Parliamentary success, and no passage more so than that in which he appealed to his followers to chodse between his own polky-and- the policy represented by Mr. Churchill. The Conservatives felt that the fact tnat the Government has been compelled to abandon its intention to summon the Round-table Conference in ■ .India,, Is a victory for common sense. It. is considered that such a .conference must have proved abortive." , Lord Lloyd, speaking at. South Kensington, said, "if we lose effective power of Government in India, we will lose all control in the Far East. Australasia could not remain a portion of the Empire, even if it wished Britain would become a small set: of islands with a great past and a miserable present and fututre." ,