The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-01-29
BRITISH COLONIAL
POLICY HAS NOT
BEEN weakened
Threat of Force in Mes
sage to Indians
By CYRIL LAMBKIN
(speelal 70 The Daily worksr)

LONDON.-Three weeks before
he assumed Office, Ramsay MacDon-
aid sent message to India deal
ing with the attitude Of the British
Labor party toward the Indian colon
ial problem.
This message has now been pub
nshed and one paragraph Of it has
been loudly approved in Tory circles
while among the left wing labor
elements it has come. in for much
criticism. The paragraph in qucs-
ton is as follows:
Il can see no hope in India IL IL
becomes the arena of struggle
between constitutionalism and
revolution. No party in Great
Britain will be cowed by threats
Of force or by policies designed to
bring government to a standstill,
and if sections in India are under
the delusion that that is not so,
events will very sadly disappoint
them.'
This is the expression Of the ira
ditional British colonial policy and
with j. H. Thomas holding the Colon
ial portfolio the most rabid imper-
ialists now see no cause for alarm
because of lack Of firmness in the
labor party colonial policy.
The message in its entirety reads:
II watch sometimes with no little
anxiety the progress of affairs in
India. During all my political life
/ have anchored myself firmly upon
the conviction that if progress is to
be well rooted it can only be carried
on by what is called political or con-
stitutional ways.
1--WE have seen in our own gem
Grafton all sorts Of revolutionary
movements which seemed to be sue
cessful, and which have broken con-
facts with the past, but in the end,
after much physical suffering and
the creation of evil tempers and a
vicious spirit, they have had to re-
turn to pick up contacts that have
been broken, and to apply the very
principles they had rejected.
Il can see no hope in India il it
becomes the arena of struggle be-
tween constitutionaIism and revolu-
ton. No party in Great Britain will
be cowed by threats of force or by
policies designed to bring govern
ment to a standstill, and if sections
in India are under the delusion that
this is not so, events will sadly dis
appoint them.
II would urge upon all the best
friends of India to come nearer to
US, rather than to stand apart from
us, to get at our reason and our
goodwill.
IL deplore the evidence Of a back
ward spirit in some sections here,
but let no one misread the causes
and effects. When appeal is made
to revolutionary methods, whether
those methods are an active or
passive force, reaction toward the
opposite extremes is bound to come,
and men and parties Of the most sim
cere goodwill are hustled off the
stage, while two forms Of reaction,
that of the right and of the left,
kick and tear and sweat against
has been demonstrated.
II know that the approach and
goodwill should be mutual. My APP
peal is, therefore, not only to the
Indians, but to the British authori-
ties as WELL"
The reference to "policies designed
to bring government to standstill"
is interpreted here as a warning to
non-resistant followers Of Mahatma
Gandhi and his policy of non-coop-
GRAFTON. Gandhi is now serving a
six-year sentence for leading the
non-cooperative movement that SER
iously hampered the British admin