India Turns Back
The main success of the Cabinet Mission to India was to secure the agreement of both Congress and the Muslim League to a long- term plan for a constitution based on two separate groups of provinces, with a central government performing only the functions of defence, foreign affairs, communications and finance. Its main failure was to secure the agreement of Congress to the setting up of an interim government while elections to a constituent assembly were held and the long-term plan hammered into its final shape. Now the success seems likely to be knocked away, and the failure to be deepened, by the action of the Muslim League in withdrawing its support from the long-term plan and threatening not to participate in any interim government. This move was not entirely unexpected. Ever since the Mission left India a month ago and a caretaker govern- ment of officials was formed, Mr. Jinnah has been arguing that the failure to form a regular interim government at once was a betrayal of the Muslims. The Viceroy's promise that such a government will be formed as soon as possible after the elections to the constituent assembly has been ignored. There are excuses for the action of the Muslim League. It is reasonable to suppose that Mr. Jinnah, after doing very well in the negotiations with the Mission, honestly be- lieved that an interim government would be set up. It is under- standable that, after seing his hopes spiked by Congress and reading Pandit Nehru's intemperate statement that Congress would do exactly what it pleased in the constituent assembly, Mr. Jinnah should have misgivings about the long-term• plan. And no doubt the election of 201 Congress representatives and 93 for the Indian States as against 78 for the Muslim League in the new constituent assembly sharpened his fears. But that is no reason for kicking over the traces. The whole future of India depends on constructive co-operation between all parties ; and there is this to be said for Congress—that its practical choice of members of the constituent assembly was far less irresponsi- ble than the utterances of its leaders. It remains to be seen whether the same will turn out to be true of the Muslim League.
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