1941-03-12 — Page 7

India's Problems

In a word, the point has now been reached at which the British Government, with the best will in the world, can take no major step In Indian politics unless indians themselves create conditions of national unity in which it will be possible for full responsible gov- ernment Indian Home Rule if the term is preferred-to function peacefully and fruitfully.

To justify this apparently dog- matie statement it is necessary, in the first place, to go back to the beginning of the war, when Mr. Gandhi, speaking for the strongest and best organised section of In- dian political opinion, namely, the All-India National Congress, de- manded that India be granted na→ tional "independence" as a neces- sary preliminary to her devoting all her national energies and re- sources to the war against Nazi

By Professor John Coatman

aggression. Cogently, he argued that only through this develop- ment could the necessary spiritual forces and qualities be mobilised in India, und, just as important. only thus could Great Britain genuinely and without embarrass- ment stand forth in the eyes of the world as the champion "par ex→ cellence of democracy and free- duni.

י

Had Mr. Gandhi been speaking for all-India, and had the issue of Indian independence hung solely on the will of the British Govern- ment, his demand would, of course, have made it impossible for the latter to refuse it, except at the ruinous cost of showing that our basic claim, on which the unity and resolution of the whole British Empire depend, that we are fighting this war to ensure the survival of freedom and. even, civilisation itself, was a mere pre- tence.

of Mahommedans.

But the immediate reaction to Mr. Gandhi's demand, inside India itself, showed that he was far from") speaking for a united India, and, also, that there were powerful in- terests in the country actively opposed to the All-India National Congress, interests whose views Something to brighten what al- could be ignored only at the most ready promised to be quite a bright imminent danger of flerce inter- Christmas for those troops. They nccine strife. Of these rival in- were going to have turkey and terests, the most important are the Christinas pudding, the colonel Indian National Mahommedans, of: told me, and needed a little en- whom all but a tiny fraction are tertainment in the evening. not only outside the All-India A sporting colonel he. When I National Congress but are strongly armoured units to do the|

suggested that the same four art--and increasingly-opposed to its ists come back on Christmas night claims and policy. job, and the equally swift ber he offered me "What about

and give them another show, he

The role of the British Govern- change, when the fray West Coast of Africa, Gibraltar or country.

East, us how to negotiate a cut 'cross readily offered his suite for the ment in India is very far indeed

accommodation of the girls.

from being that of autocratic dis- proved successful, to mak- Malta he suggested. Salisbury After wading through pools of Well, back we had to go over

penser of the country's political was good enough for me.

fate. ing this

Rather is the role that of the the Plain to cur "digs" with Au- guarantor of India's internal and water and mud. we found attacking So I went to force to mop up oases and the 1,200 odd

see how some of concert hall. This, believe at ordrey nursing a stvollen ankle, but external peace and, as far as her artists touring at

not, was the famous orange grove as happy as any little Audrey political development and status clear the back country, home and those lar-distant lunds yes, Granges were actually | could be.

are concerned, arbitrator and guide. Are entertaining the forces. ultimately uniting with

"A grand audience, and worth There are eleven Provinces In I made one blunder, I accom-

Ailesbury's estate, for that's where any trouble we may have had," British India, and the general the army on the coast. panied a Grade A company first.

she told me. And that's a point, elections of 1937, the first to be This, in the They covered half

profession, is con-

held under the new constitution, An imposing building, fronted | you knew. sidered a luxury cruise. May be by huge colonnades, which, 18 After all that,

I felt that the returned Congress governments in million miles of desert, it is to them.

Audrey, the soubrette, said. re-

comfort of one's home

eight out of the eleven. Since the roadless and with never a and one mere ma-he's useful: patra!

Anyway, I set out with 12 girls minded her of Anthony and Cleo-;

Congress Party, as we have seen, everything.

is almost entirely Hindu, this re- repair shop in the vast he handles the pisno rather well Inside was the canteen and re-

Of course, "Girls In Uniform" sult meant the possibility of seri- --who were playing in "Girls in creation room with curious con- was a really tip top show, and be-ous friction in those provinces expanse, these tanks man- Uniform, the first all-girl show versions and additions to make it lieve me those girls are a little under Congress governments ned by Britons and New sent out by N.A.A.FI I inished a concert hall. There was no elec-high hat" since Queen Mary saw where there were large numbers Zealanders, few of whom

the tour with the Sing Song tric lighting, and the place was it recently. Four. That was the sticky end.

I can quite understand Leslie's- And it is a matter of history perhaps had ever seen a They, so understand, are the Six oil lamps ware the foot- "inferiority complex." He won't that intercommunal relations de- tank before. They kept a lesser lights, and their job is to lights on a stage consisting of have the piano on the stage with teriorated steadily between

1937 rendezvous with the camps

out-of-the-way table tops! A couple of oil stoves them, and at an RAF. camp we and the outbreak of the war. in an 8 h. ex-laundry were scrounged for the girls' dress- | visited, he insisted an at being It will be seen, therefore, that French coming up from motor-van complete with piano ing-room-a blanket nailed across moved down to the duor--and in Mr. Gandhi's demand for "inde- Lake Chad within an hour the other way round?

The pianist is the driver-or is it a corner-und the show went on. spite of all our efforts it got à pendence" for India was a power-

And what a show. There was jolt and lost a leg!

fully descriptive factor in India's of the appointed time, in Well, I thought, alter the com- just one minor mishap, but who Still, Leslie managed to get his domestic relations. The Viceroy, after consulting; representatives of an area of 10,000-foot fert of a de luxe coach, this would woul:) worry about that? Audrey tunes out of it. He should. He's volcanic peaks, with

be something of a change. It was. put her foot through the age, but accompanied Cerule Gitana, Hetty all major sections of opinion, an- no Without the piano and the there were offiner-gallants to re-King, Ann Penn and Derek Old-ounced in October, 1939, that he guide but

could do no more than promise. several bags of dresses and other scue her and repair the platform.ham. the sketchy props, it might have been a re- For two hours those four work-. maps of the region. Then latively comfortable 30-mile ride ed really hard and gave the troops girls. One of them is Moya Mac-after the war if this were found And there's talent among those that there would be full consulta- tion with Indian representatives together they took a fort over the Plain, Still, the

two some grand entertainment. I ask queen Pape, whose family have necessary and desirable, and that girls didn't grumble, 50

ed the Commanding Officer what been at Drury Lane since 1740 during the war he could have a by surprise and carried it, should I?

the men thought 0% these Moya appeared at the Lane with the French colonel being The camp was certainly out of

N.A.A.F.I, shows.

Ivor Novello, playing Fairy Queen shot down within twenty patch rider to meet us and show Sure enough they did when the no, let's keep the name out. She's settled nothing. Nevertheless, in

the way. We had to have a des-

"They'll give you their own an in the 1938-30 panto.

afterwards," heaplied. And what a personality is-but yards of its walls. The sur-

This reply pleased nobody and asked them at the end if they'd a grandmother. I had the pleasure view of the almost unanimous. prise was so complete that pital in Egypt, and of the enjoyed it and would like the of delivering the good news to her feeling in India in favour of the passing natives, never captured

four back again. mail pouch

turing the show. Yet she can do Empire's struggle against We had a last look at this fam-the High kinking stuff with the Nazis, the Congress leaders decid- the dreaming that the British which yielded all the inous old place at the invitation of best of famil could be so far from their formation that was want-spectacle we must have present- business, which just goes to show medan, Princes, and other opinion

the colonel.

ed to do nothing to embarrass the And "what an odd There's another side to this Government. Moreover, Mahom→ base, gave them the Fased. Doubtless there will be ed.

what stuff these girls-and men, steadily hardened against Congress cist salute.

a hundred other exciting of this ancient ancestry-now the have one of those little vans in action on their part would be set- There in the main dining-hall of course-are made of. N.A.A.F.I. and it became clear that any direct When the story is told, happenings, at present officers' mess--we sat around the which I travelled, with no fewer ting a match to a powder maga- there will be the incident unrecorded. The movie huge marble fireplace under the than 74 machine-gun bullet holas zine. Lord Linlithgow, therefore, of the wounded man who scouts should lose no time led by the imposing portraits of a and two women, were caught out ment among the various interests pale light of oil lamps, surround-in it. The four artists, two mer continued his efforts to get agree- was carried 790 miles by in getting after this new famous family, descendants of in a raid, and had to lie under but without much success. truck across the sand sequence. It may prove to Bruce, Earl of Elgin, fether of the

Robert Bruce, with Thomas, Lord the van for nine hours.

The Mahommedan It was "granny” who, held up now is for the dunes and flown from a be the most picturesque rst Earl of Allesbury "in the in a raid, stopped an R.A.F. mo- Mahommedan India, and a Hind

creation of French airfield to a hos- in the war.

tor-cyclist, and rode pillion at India, a conception which is clear It's my hope that I've done umpteen mp.h to be on timo,y ruinbus to Indian-national unit

go around 10

why

swer

chair" at the head of the room.

Presentative body of Indians associated with his government in

consultative capacity.

a

demand