OFFER TO INDIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21818, 22 November 1940, Page 9

OFFER TO INDIA

No Progress With War Council Endeavour To Unite Opinion British Official Wireless RUGBY, November zu. In a statement to the Indian Legislature, the Viceroy (Lord Linlithgow) announced the decision not to proceed with the expansion of the Executive Council or the estabishment of a War Advisory Council at the present moment. The Viceroy briefly recapitulated the course of events leading up to the present position. He recalled the declaration by the British Government of its sympathy with the Indian desire for self-government subject to the fulfilment of obligations which Britain’s long association with India had imposed upon her. He reminded the Legislature of the concern which the King felt that full weight should be given to the views of minorities in the growing scheme, and said that the British Government could not contemplate the transference of present responsibilities for the peace and welfare of India to any section of government whose authority was directly denied by large and powerful elements of India’s national life. In order to secure these “indis-pensably-linked objects,” it was proposed to set up, after the war, on a basis of friendly agreement, a body representative of all the powerful elements of India’s national life to devise the framework of a new constitution. In the meantime, the British Government desired to promote every sincere and practical step taken by Indians to prepare the way for an agreement upon its form of procedure as well as upon the principles and the outlines of the constitution itself. The Viceroy spoke of the endeavour to associate Indian public opinion more closely with the central Government of India through inviting Indian political leaders to join the Executive Council, and the proposal to establish a War Advisory Council. “Outside India these proposals, both in the immediate and in the larger ultimate aspects, have been welcomed as liberal in conception and representing the best practical solution of the existing differences. In India itself, too, they have met with the support of a large body of opinion. In the more immediate aspect, however, namely, the expansion of my Executive Council, I have not secured the response which I hoped from the political leaders in India. The reasons for which they have been unable to accept the proposals of the British Goverment are conflicting and, indeed, in some ways, mutually destructive. No Indian Contribution “However that may be, the effect is that the major political parties concerned are not, in the present circumstances, prepared to take advantage of the opportunity offered them by the British Government. I note this conclusion with sincere regret. The proposals in question would place real power and real responsibility in Indian hands, and their acceptance would afford the most helpful contribution which Indian political leaders could make at this critical time towards the preservation of Indian unity and an agreed constitutional settlement for the future. “The British Government does not propose to withdraw them, and it is still prepared to give effect to them as soon as it is convinced that a sufficient degree of representative support is forthcoming, but as that degree of support has evidently not yet manifested itself, the British Government has decided that I would not be justified in proceeding with the expansion of my Executive Council or the establishment of a War Advisory Council at present.”