22 DECEMBER 1944, Page 13

" INDIA : THE NEXT STEP " Si ,—Z's. plea

for the immediate setting up of a Constituent Assembly in India with " the necessary assurances as to the destiny of its decisions " is both timely and wise. Equally wisely, he argues for the release of the Congress leaders who were imprisoned without charge or trial, even though they may not- withdraw the Quit India resolution. His insistence• that the Government shotild take the first step " to create the conditions under which the people of India may win self-government for themselves" will go a long way to undo the harm done to Indo-British relations by the truculent and irresponsible speech made by Mr. James Walkei on behalf of the -Labour Executive at the Party Conference last Friday. I use the word irresponsible advisedly, for at a moment when most of the national journals, including the Times, are favouring a rapprochement policy towards India, and when in India itself there is a growing tendency to review the situation in the light of new circum- stances,—" 1944 is not 1942," said Mr. Gandhi,—the Labour Executive is not helping matters by calling the Congress a Fascist organisation. Mr. Walker levelled charges against the Congress which are quite un- founded. " One country, one party, one leader," he said, was a Congress motto, which is, of course, quite untrue, and is inconsistent with Con- gress history and its democratic tradition. All this would not have mattered, if the Indian Press could afford to ignore Mr. Walker, or the Labour Executive. Z's article and the Labour Conference decision on

India, which was in defiance of the Executive, will therefore inspire con- fidence where Mr. Walker would only sow distrust.

The situation in India is daily getting worse. Religious bigotry and separatism have already created such an atmosphere of bitterness and intolerance that violence is becoming rife. On June 13, the- Majlis-i- Ahrar, the Punjab Moslem party, _regretted this development, and accused the Moslem League of raiding its premises and of generally fostering violence as a technique of political intimidation. On June zo, the Ahrars officially condemned the League " for the cold-blooded murder of Maulana Sher Gul, a prominent Ahrar leader." In Sind, the nationalist Moslem Premier Allah Bus, was murdered by Moslem Leaguers, and the Moslem League Revenue Minister, Khuhro, and his brother and associates are now facing trial for this dastardly crime. I could give many more examples. . That the Moslem League is using violence to suppress political opposition has been noted and condemned by the Ahrars and by all the other important Moslem bodies. Unless checked at the outset and condemned in India and abroad in unequivocal terms, violence will usurp the position of the method of conference, as " Z " put it, in the Indian political scene.

In Parliamentary circles the need for an early settlement in India which will make for an orderly and peaceful development in the economic and political fields is now being increasingly realised. The feasibility of an all-Party Parliamentary deputation, I understand, is being studied in the highest quarters. What response it will, evoke in India is still "uncertain. The release of the interned leaders would be the first pre- liminary to such a deputation which, even if it is meant to be merely exploratory, will need all the goodwill of the chosen leaders of the people. Secondly, His Majesty's Government should, in clear and definite terms, restate its India policy.—Yours faithfully,