MR. GANDHI AND JAPAN

THE Indian situation has become both confused and dangerous as the result, first, of the disclosures of Mr. Gandhi's general 'attitude in the Congress Party documents seized by the Government of India, and, second, of the reaffirmation by the Congress Party Working Committee on Wednesday of its demand for immediate independence, coupled with the threat that failure to obtain this would result in a general civil disobedience movement under the leadership of Mr. Gandhi. No more effective reply to these demands could be made than is contained in the statement by Sir Stafford Cripps, issued on Thursday. The Indian leaders, he points out, fail completely to realise what the sudden transfer of power to an Indian Provisional Government would mean. There would be no Viceroy, no Executive Council, no Legislative Assembly, no Pro- vincial Governors. All this would have to be improvised, and untried men would be placed in authority at a moment of abnormal difficulty and danger. In any case, there is no prospect whatever of a Provisional Government in the least degree representative of the principal parties in India being formed. The disclosure that Mr. Gandhi, in the draft resolution' he submitted to the meeting of the Congress Party Working Committee at Wardha, declared that " if India were freed her first step would probably be to negotiate with Japan," has alienated not only Mr. Jinnah, but every practical and patriotic Indian. It is true that the Congress Party, no doubt under Mr. Nehru's influence, has to some extent shifted its ground, putting in the forefront its desire to organise an Independent United India's resistance to Japan, but this assumes an immediate transfer of power such as Sir Stafford Cripps has shown to be utterly impracticable in existing circumstances. There can be little doubt that the Congress All-India Committee will approve the Civil Disobedience Campaign, which will present the Government of India with a new major problem in the face of the immediate menace of external attack. General Togo has reason to be im- mensely grateful to Mr. Gandhi, whose activities may, indeed, pre- cipitate a Japanese invasion.

American Courts in Britain

A Bill, introducing a very remarkable innovation in British con- stitutional practice, was passed hurriedly through all its stages in the House of COmmOtis last Tuesday. It provided that all criminal offences committed by =members of the United States armed forces should be removed from the jurisdiction of the British courts, and tried by American military courts. The question was raised first by the American Government, discussed between Mr. Eden and Mr. Winant, and no doubt submitted for approval to the Law Officers of the Crown. The request was a very proper one, and to grant it,

subject to certain conditions, was most desirable from the British as well as the American points of view. There will soon be very large numbers of American soldiers in this country, who understand the procedure of American courts and know the law of their country ; in the eVent of offences being committed by any of them the accused can be most satisfactorily dealt with in courts conducted by their own countrymen. Such a procedure will relieve British courts of an embarrassing task, and tend to remove possible causes of friction. But there are certain points which require to be settled by agreement, points on which the House of Commons should have had more definite assurances before it was asked to commit itself to hurried legislation. In some respects American law differs from British law. Will the American courts enforce compliance with British police regulations? In the case of sexual offences, will American orders be issued to bring American law into line with British law in this country—for instance, in regard to the important question of the " age of consent "? Will cases be tried near the place where offences occurred, so that witnesses may not be taken long distances? No doubt all these matters will be settled by agreement, but Parlia- ment had a right to know. But the main provision of the Act is sensible. The American authorities in this country will be just as anxious to study our susceptibilities as we theirs. We were granted similar rights in France in the last war, and the United States is prepared to reciprocate if the occasion should arise. The arrange- ment is designed to avoid friction, not create it ; and there is no reason why any should arise so long as the methods of application are fully discussed and made clear at the outset.

Germany's Coastal " Front "

Insufficient distinction is made between a " second front " on the European continent and a general offensive on such a front. The first already exists, though the second does not. The German western front from northern Norway to southern France is manned and fortified, and its defences can no more be neglected than the western front line in the last war—which did not cease to exist during the quieter periods between big operations. A recent German newsreel shows pictures of fortifications along the Channel and the Atlantic sea-coast, with new troops arriving to take up their positions. The German Press has been seeking to reassure the German public by pointing out the strength of the occupying forces in reserve positions behind the coastal front line, and the plentiful supply of airfields and air units. General Jacob, Inspector of German Fortifica- tions, is reputed to have made a tour of the whole western coastal front and to have assured himself of its strength. In view of the liveliness expected by the enemy on the western front it appears that there has been a backward move of certain headquarters away from ' the danger zone, both General Christiansen, commander of the occupying forces of Holland, and Seyss-Inquart, the Nazi governor, having withdrawn themselves to the neighbourhood of Arnhem, !near the German frontier. Though it seems to be true that of the forces in the west some twelve divisions have recently been sent east- ' wards, other divisions have been sent west to take their place. At the least we are compelling the enemy to keep some 25 divisions in ' France alone and a very large proportion of their air fighter force.

British and German Raiders

Since Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris made his stern broadcast to Germany last week a heavy blow has been dealt by our bombers at the industrial centre of Saarbrucken and another still more deadly on Diisseldorf, and the occupied territories have repeatedly been swept by our bombers and fighters in daylight. The Germans have now resumed aerial attacks on this country, but on a scale in no way comparable with that of 1940 and 1941. There have been raids by relatively weak forces on a few selected centres, and a number of attacks by one or two aircraft on coastal regions or more daring ventures high among the clouds inland. It is probable that these raids are intended as reprisals for the comfort of the German people rather than as serious contributions to the war. Our attacks on France and Belgium by day and Germany by night compel the Germans to keep a strong defensive force of fighters in the west, but they are apparently anxious to keep as many bombers as possible for Russia and the Mediterranean, and will not at present release them for service in the west if they can help it. We ought to welcome the necessity which compels them to use some bombers for reprisal raids on this country, since every bomber used here is one less available for the east. Moreover, though there is nothing which should lull us into the belief that they cannot or will not bomb us intensively again—sooner or later they doubtless will—none the less we know that from henceforward we can bomb them more heavily than they can bomb us, and, secondly, that our defences are far better than they were. German losses here are usually over to per cent., and some- times as high as 20.

Isolationist Immortals

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge was admirably inspired in securing Mr. Archibald MacLeish as this year's Rede Lecturer. (The catholicity of the foundation is shown by the fact that last -year Mr. E. M. Forster lectured on Virginia Wolff.) Mr. MacLeish is a close personal friend of President Roosevelt and knows his mind well. While, therefore, in speaking last week on " American Opinion and the War," he was of course expressing primarily his own views, it may be assumed that much of what he said would find approval at the White House. Perhaps the kernel of the speech is to be found in the epigrammatic assertion that "old isolationists never die ; they merely dig their toes in in a new position." In spite of them America has come into the war, but they still have hopes that America may, as in 1919, contract out of the peace. It is for America, no doubt, to settle with her own isolationists, as she is perfectly capable of doing, but we have a part to play there too. Every liberal sentiment, whether in speech or writing, by a prominent American, whether it be Mr. Cordell Hull, Mr. Henry Wallace or Mr. Sumner Welles or Mr. Wendell Willkie or Mr. Hoover, should receive here the welcome and the response it deserves—such a response as Mr. Eden very rightly gave in his Nottingham speech last month—for any suggestion that American advances have hit a blank wall here will be taken by the isolationists as excuse for a withdrawal of America into Pan-American isolation from Europe under cover of the Monroe Doctrine. Only intimate and assiduous co-operation between the progressive elements in each country will generate the good will and purpose essential for the accomplishment of the tasks which will confront both when the war is over.

Spanish Refugees in France

Of the many infamous acts committed or proposed by Laval none could be more cruel or callous than that which he is reported to be planning in connexion with the too,000 Spanish Republican refugees now living in France. The report, which draws protest from the Duchess of Atholl and other signatories of a letter we publish this week, alleges that Laval is giving these unhappy refugees the choice of being sent to work in Germany or of being handed over to the Spanish Government. If this is true, it is a gross and terrible breach of the unwritten law of sanctuary. These veterans of the Spanish Republican army withdrew resisting to the last against the conquerors of Franco's Spain, and have eked out a wretched existence in France, but at least with the assurance that they would not be extradited. To return them to Spain would be to hand them over to their former political enemies ; to send them to Germany would be to ask them to work for enemies against whom they fought or suffer the conse- quences of refusal. If Laval is really contemplating this new perfidy there is nothing that this country can do directly, but the United States, which still has some influence at Vichy, and Latin America should be induced, if possible, to make an appeal or a protest.

The Profiteers

Extreme profiteering is at all times an ugly practice which arouses the indignation of the public, but in war-time it is a crime against the nation which should be firmly and ruthlessly stamped out. The existence of a black market thriving upon the greed of rich con- sumers and the criminality of a number of unscrupulous traders is evidence of a loathsome kind of treachery, which has to be rooted out by the Government and should be severely treated by the courts. In the same category of anti-social behaviour, though hitherto not illegal, is that of traders who exploit the necessities of bombed-out householders or refugees by selling such things as furniture at exorbitant scarcity prices. To the first of these evils Lord Woolton is fully alive. Speaking in the House of Lords on Tuesday, he said that he would not hesitate to remove the licences of traders whose records showed that they were not to be trusted. The number of racketeers engaged in illicit trade is a very small fraction of those engaged in business, and the tracking of them down is not easy. In his efforts to search them out and bring them to justice and deprive them of the means of resuming their mal- practices, Lord Woolton has the nation behind him. The same may be said in regard to the action of the Board of Trade in its decision to control the prices of new and secondhand furniture which have soared to fantastically high levels. The cost of renewal has been a great hardship to persons who have lost houses and furniture in the blitz.

The Equipment of the Body

In his broadcast last Sunday Lord Woolton neither threatened more food reductions nor promised that we could do without them. He did not minimise the price that is paid for food in men and ships, though the toll has been lessened by the success of British agriculture. He said that the standard he aims at is a fighting standard, that of using our food to keep us fit to win the war ; though he has not forgotten the needs of the future, which must be satisfied by the proper nourishment of children and nursing mothers. Thefe is a unanimous feeling throughout the country that his department has done its job well—the nation is not suffering from under-nutrition. But in some circles, and in some news- papers, there is a masochistic tendency to extol suffering for suffering's sake, revealing itself in something like an exhortation to the Minister to make us suffer, as we have not yet done, by reduc- ing our rations of food. Perhaps that may be necessary. We may have no alternative but to put up with a smaller supply of food than the normal body requires. But it should be clearly recognised that the equipment of the body with good food is just as essential to fighting efficiency as the equipment of troops with arms. Lord Woolton has clearly recognised that fact, and he is right We should be prepared for any sacrifice in expensive pleasure ; but to ask for a sacrifice in fitness before it is necessary is foolish.