Brass Tacks in India
The Cabinet mission to India is getting down to work. The pre- liminaries are over and their effect has been to create a propitious atmosphere for the vital discussions which are to follow. The clear expression of British good will implied in the decision to send out three Ministers and underlined in the Commons debate which pre- ceded their departure, has been spread abroad in India by a success- ful first interview of the delegation with a gathering of highly critical pressmen. At this meeting one important issue was considerably clarified. Mr. Attlee's statement that excessive tenderness for minorities would not be allowed to hold up a majority agreement had raised the question whether the Muslim League, with its pro- gramme of a separate Pakistan, was to be regarded as a minority. Lord Pethick-Lawrence refused to oversimplify the issue by a straight yes-or-no answer but left his hearers with an impression which the Muslims found reassuring and the more extreme Hindus did not. A reasonable interpretation is that Mr. Jinnah and his friends can expect to get a sympathetic hearing so long as they can prove that they are reasonable representatives of a majority of Indian Muslims. For the rest the Mission faces a row of questions. If the Muslim League cannot make its peace with Congress, can there be successful Central Government without the Muslim League? What are the interim arrangements to be while the constitutional issues involved in self-government are thrashed out? What is to be the form of the constitution making body? These and many other profoundly difficult and complicated matters remain to be settled. It will take a long time and the most the present Mission can hope for is to give the process a fair start, undisturbed by intransigence and violence.
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