"A NEW PLAN FOR INDIA"
Sra.,—It is a good omen that Sir Zafrulla Khan's contribution to the discussion of the Indian political problem ins been so widely and so Warmly welcomed. He has the support of a great and growing body of opinion_ in this country and in India in his insistence that the British Government should take the initiative in preparing the way for a solution of the deadlock. There will be much support also for the idea of a time-limit within which an agreed solution should be reached. But I venture to offer two critical remarks on the plan.
Firstly, a declaration by Government of its purpose to accept any solution on which the parties are agreed will not serve by itself to bring the parties together. Government must take upon itself the task of bringing them together. I believe that a reaffirmation of Government's policy regarding the future of India, the enunciation of a plan fot con- ference with a view to the framing of a new constitution and the release of the Congress leaders would do much to restore goodwill. There can surely be no risk in the release of these prisoners if their release be part of a scheme for co-operation in constructive planning. Government would lose nothing in prestige by taking this action now ; indeed it would gain greatly both in India and abroad.
Secondly, I am not convinced of the soundness of Sir Zafrulla Khan's suggestion that failing a settlement. within a certain period to be fixed, His Majesty's Government should frame their own constitution for submission to Parliament. The leading political parties would almost certainly refuse to work a constitution in the making of which they had no hand. It is probable that they would not work it even to the limited extent of using the constitutional means provided for its amendment. It is probable, rather, that attempts would be made by rival parties to supersede it by the use of the more direct methods which in recent years have become familiar in India. If that should happen India's last state would be worse than the first.
I do not despair of the possibility of bringing the great parties to agreement on essential principles, but the longer Government delays in taking positive action toward this end, the more difficult it is going to
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