Something About India

Britain was obviously going to do something about India. The Government's new spokesman, Sir Stafford Cripps, told Parliament: "A debate will be possible very shortly, upon the basis of a Government decision in the matter."

Many Britons felt that "shortly" was much too far away for either action or debate on India. The war was bearing down fast on India's disunited, --disaffected Hindus, Moslems, Princes and Untouchables. And there was widespread fear, both at home and abroad, that Britain's something would not only be late but far from enough. A fortnight ago, when Winston Churchill in his Cabinet shuffle failed to remove his Old Harrovian friend, crustily conservative Secretary of State for India Leopold Stennett Amery, many took it as a bad sign for India's political hopes.

For years the British Government had been saying that it would give India self-government when India's conflicting parties could agree. Last week Government spokesmen were still putting it up to the Indians. Said Colonial Secretary Lord Cranborne: "If the Indian leaders would get together and devise some scheme which would be satisfactory to all, the Indian problem would be satisfactorily solved." Said Ambassador to the U.S. Lord Halifax: "We are anxious and prepared to do our part, but . . . they first must conquer the fundamental difficulty, that of unification between the Hindu and Moslem parties."

But most Britons knew that India's political differences might take years to iron out--even under most favorable conditions. They thought that the time was ripe for Britain to take the initiative in settling those differences. They wanted the Indian National Defense Council to be backed by the will of millions who knew that they were fighting for their own freedom.

The British Labor Party declared for this point of view last week in a report which began by saying: "The Labor Party believes it is ... the duty of the British Government to take every possible step to promote Indian agreement." But the report went further, said exactly what the Labor Party would do to begin with: 1) as an earnest of Britain's future good intentions, it would give all posts in the Viceroy's Executive Council of 14 to Indians (who now hold only nine posts, excluding those of finance and defense); 2) the Council would immediately take steps toward the drafting of a new Indian constitution, to be ratified after the war.

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