24 AUGUST 1934, Page 17

"INDIA : THE DANGERS OF DELAY " [To the Editor

of Tar: SPECTATOR] SIRS I have been very pleased to read in your issue of July 20th, 1934, which arrived only two days ago, Lord Meston's article on " India : The Dangers of Delay." He has very fairly summed up the whole situation. Ile says in the concluding portion of his article that " It has always been a reproach that, in the matter of political progress, our gifts to India have come too late. We were certainly too late in recognizing the spirit typified by the National Congress. We should not have waited for the War to • start the advance embodied in the Act of 1919. If any further avoidable delay in dealing with the White Paper adds a third such error to our record, the result will be sheer calamity. There is still tune for the Prime Minister and Lord Linlithgow to avert it."

This is what has always been said by many of my thoughtful countrymen from the days of Mr. Cokhalc and before. It was time that someone in the position of Lord Meston said something publicly like this in England. As an Indian who completely shares the views and the sentiments expressed by Lord Meston in the article quoted above. and as one who has, since 1930, worked in close collaboration with British states- men in England with the sole object of constructing and not obstructing, I feel it my duty publicly to endorse what Lord Meston has said.

I deliberately refrain at this stage from commenting upon the trend of events and opinions in England or in India about our future. I shall, however, only express the hope that a merciful Providence may soon put an end to this trying period of confusion.—I am, Sir, &c.,

19, Albert Road, Allahabad. TEJ BAH.IDUR SAPRU.