Monday, Jul. 23, 1945

False Dawn

The first faint flush of light that sometimes precedes the dawn is called the false dawn.

Last week the 21 Indian delegates, gathered around the long teak table in the Simla conference room, learned that the hope of self-government for India had also been a false dawn. The bright hopes for success which had inspired the Simla Conference almost to the end were over.

At the head of the conference table the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, his face showing the strain of a fortnight's recurring crises, announced that his present effort to give India self-government had failed. Of the parties represented, all but the Moslem League had handed him lists of prospective members of the proposed Executive Council. The predominantly Hindu Congress party had been willing to take office. But, in the person of its President Mohamed Ali Jinnah, the Moslem League had rejected Wavell's plan.

Said the Viceroy: "I therefore made my provisional selections, including certain Moslem League names. . . . Mr. Jinnah told me it was not acceptable to the Moslem League, and he was so decided that I felt it would be useless to continue discussions. The conference has therefore failed."

Then Lord Wavell made a remarkable statement: "I wish to make it clear that the responsibility for the failure is mine. The main idea underlying the conference was mine. If it had succeeded, its success would have been attributed to me, and I cannot place the blame for its failure upon any of the parties."

By assuming all, the Viceroy had absolved even the Moslem League for its part in wrecking the conference. The door to reconciliation was thus left open a crack.

In the U.S., Sirdar J. J. Singh, president of the India League of America, declared the meeting "a striking evidence of the desire of the vast majority of Indians to work together and . . . also an evidence of the continuing British policy of unduly emphasizing minorities." He characterized the Moslem League's behavior at Simla as "coercion of the majority," blamed Lord Wavell for the failure of the conference "only to the extent that he has allowed himself to be bullied into retreat by a small minority."

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