A BRITISH POLICY FOR INDIA
. . .
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] - • - - - - •
Simon . Commission is making heavy weather ; bombarded with tons of irrelevant matter, which it is quite premature to consider, 'until a few essential preliminary points are settled, • , These may be put briefly :-
.1. Is there any_ Indian Unity possible, such as is the indispensable
preliminary to any kind of Swaraj ? . it possible to have any true democratic government in a country where not only are " equality and fraternity " unknown, -but all such ideas are diametrically opposed to the whole social
complex, religious and racial and communal ? . 3: On the record of the last ten years of limited representative government, under the Dyarchy, is there any justification for allowing an " advance " on the poweini SlreadY given ? 4. Is there any chance . of getting .the Indian Princes into a federation on republican lines, controlled by the low-born demo- cratic -politicians who expect to govern -British -India ? . 5, Some of _the politicians. have recently put forward a claim for " complete immediate Independence with severance of the British connexion." Is there any possibility of any such, concession, and the withdrawal of the British ? Others of the politicians, aim lit the same goal of Independence, to be attained indirectly by getting " Dominion Status " first of all, and then Independence by secession from the Empire. Is there any chance of this • concession ?
6. Li -there any' chance of an' entirely Indianized Army being able to keep out- the invaders by land and sew, or being anything but a source of internecine warfare ?
When, from the men who know India, the answer to all these six questions is a stentorian" No," and the decision of the Simon Commission must be: the same if facts have been put impartially before it, what is the good • of going on with irrelevant queitions -which can only arise- in impossible contingencies ?- Meantime, every month of delay and drift leads to more impossible demands. -from, the ;politicians.: who- put- down -all concessions to fear -; • and more- unrest .amongst the masses) puzzled to know what the British Government is driving at. •
The urgent necessity of the moment is therefore a clear declaration of policy, and it is a simple solution of the difficulty. —I am, Sir, &c.,
[We do not agree with all the writer's arguments. The British nation . stands committed to the hiStorie under- taking ofAugnst, 1917, which, in his recent speech, Lord Irwin deScribed as " a solemn covenant:" , The Viceroy's words deserve the widest circiilatiOn. Lord Irwin said : " I tell this assembly again, and thrOugh them India-, that the declaration of 1917 stands, and will stand for all time, as the solemn pledge of the British people to do all that can be done by one people to assist another to attain full national, political stature, and that "pledge so given will never be dishonoured."
Spectator.]
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