EMPIRE IN TRUST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 7

EMPIRE IN TRUST

BRITAIN’S GREAT PACT PROTECTION FOR NATIONS PEACEFUL POLICY IN INDIA APPEAL BY LORD SANKEY [British Official Wireless.] RUGBY, March 18. “Put up the sword,’’ said the Lord Chancellor, Lord Sankey, in an impassioned plea to the House of Lords for a policy of magnanimity in India. Speaking in the House of Lords, he reviewed the Round Tabic Conference, its results, and its effects. “Appeal to force is the bankruptcy of statecraft,” ’ic said. “Tho future of India is no longer in the meltingpot. The metal o. its new constitution is being hammered out on the anvil of public opinion. It is in the nature of things that sparks should fly, but sparks fly forgotten—the true metal remains. “We never went to India to conquer. We went there to trade. The inherited genius of our race and some fostering star have given us an Empire, but it is an Empire which wc hold in trust for many creeds and nations whose classes and communities are entitled to our protection. “Rightly or wrongly, we have educated Indians in Western ideals, introduced them to Western institutions, and admitted them to our councils.

“The language of their Legislative Assembly and of the Congress itself is our mother tongue. Time after time wc have made them promises. It is too late to go back. Wc must go forward It is our traditional policy and has been the secret of our success.”

After reviewing the proposals put forward by the conference, Lord Sankey addressed himself to tho future policy. Did they, he asked, desire an India, a companion by request, or one seething with sedition? If they chose concilation they would gain nearly all they wished and lose but little. If repression, the military expenditure would go up, revenue returns and trading receipts would go down, and difficulties would increase.

“If Britain’s traditional policy is pursued,” he continued, “then will follow settled government, material prosperity, and the reign of law. Finance, defence, law and order arc undoubtedly important, but I am anxious for something more than the triumphs of our trade; I am jealous for the reputation of our statesmanship. “It is by their moral actions, not by their material successes, that Empires are judged at the bar of public opinion and by the verdict of history.

“Let u*< grant a Federal Constitution to India and let our hope be tha. everything in it may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth and justice, may flourish as abundantly in India as they have done here at Home.”

GANDHI PLAN ACCEPTED DEALING IN FOREIGN CLOTH DELHI, March 19. A scheme, drawn up by Air Gandhi for the disposal of stocks of British and foreign cloth at preesnt held by dealers throughout India, has been accepted by representatives of important mills in Bombay, Bargda, and Ahme dabad . Tho conference agreed that a new agency be formed with the object ot re-exporting to countries outside of Lidia the existing stocks of foreign cloth, the losses being shared by merchants and Congress merchants who have undertaken to cease dealing in fjreign cloth.