DOMINION STATUS IN INDIA

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1929, Page 15

DOMINION STATUS IN INDIA

DEMANDS OF CENTRAL COMMITTEE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Dec. 2-1. Tho report by the Indian Central Committee which shared >n the Simon Commission’s investigations throughout India, demands an explicit declaration by Parliament that full Dominion status is the goal and that an immediate substantial step towards its attainment will bo made by the conferring of a liberal measure of autonomy on the. provinces and making the Government of India responsible to tho legislature. It is urged that the Madras and Bombay Governments should be permitted to make tho experiment of raising local armies to maintain internal security in order to prove that Indian suspicions that Britain intends to keep India in subjection by the control of an army are unwarranted. ' It is generally understood that the conversations between the Viceroy and five Indian political leaders ended in a total breakdown. Gandhi, inspired by the Pundit Mollal Nehru, pressed for the immediate grant of Dominion status to India, although Gandhi frankly admitted that India as yef was utterly unready for the task. The moderate Indian leaders were present at the Viceroy’s house, namely, Jinnah, the Moslem leader, and Mr. T. B. Sapru. The conference proved hopeless. Extremist counsels arc likely now to dominate the Lahore Congress and the immediate course of pollitics in India. The extremist Mayor of Calcutta, when making a speech, alluded in sarcastic terms to the attempt on the Viceroy's life, accusing tho police of planting bombs, whicn was inevitable whenever India was about to take a big stride towards her political aims.