Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-27
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Cynosure Of all eyes in the Anglo
French galaxy Of legal luninaries nov
Ia washington Is Sir John Simon, lead
ar Of the British bar and chairman Of
the ROYAL Commission on India. Sir
John discusses freely and frankly the
banning problem confronting Britain IN
the East. Englishmen are anxious, ne
SAYS, to have the American people UNI
derstand the situation in India, con-
corning which he encounters the i've
Hest Interest in this country. The
Simon commissions recent report, the
fruit of two years survey on the spot,
is now the axis around which discus
sion in Great Britain revolves and out
of which solution may come. 1t will
virtually be the "agenda" of business
at the Forthcoming Indian round-table
discussion in London two months hence.
+ +
"As to the ultimate goal in India, y
said Sir John Simon, tall, gaunt, white
haired Briton of scholarly Inien and en-
gaging personality, to this observer
There il no difference of opinion.
Briton and Indian alike are agreed that
the gradual establishment Of some form
of self-government is what, believe, an
eminent American statesman once de-
scribed as manifest destiny The only
question is how and when 1t Is to be
brought about. Two major difficulties
confront us in our desire to see 1t
achieved. First and foremost Is the
appallingly widespread lack of genuine
interest in political development In
india as whole. In its overwhelming
millions the population is concerned ex-
clusively with the more immediate mat
ters of its ordinary welfare. It Is in
terested In its crops, its famine relief,
its water supply, its day-by-day veal
and woe-in all those things, In short,
which we generally understand as the
bread-and-butter things of life. Politics
Is utterly remote from the thoughts Of
more than e0To of the Indian people.
Cut OF from schools, newspapers and
other channels of intelligence and edu-
cation, as the masses are, their attitude
toward the so-called independence move
ment is combination Of ignorance and
indifference. For generations they have
given to them and not TO exercise it
themselves.
ST would not be understood as sug-
costing that the minority of Indians,
of whom Mr.. Gandhi is the type the
outside world hears most of, is unworthy
of consideration. 1t Is decidedly a fac
tor entitled to respect, and commands
1t, despite the groups slender proper
tions, measured against the entire vast
population of India. This minority is
the Indian intRlligentsia, as it may not
inappropriately be called. 1t is made
up Of lawyers, journalists, teachers and
other educated elements. who have in
common, among other things, a COM
plete and classic knowledge of the Eng
lish language. From this group ema-
mates the independence agitation. Its
slogans and its methods are of western
origin. Woodrow Wilson's 'self-deter-
favorite arrow in its CULVER. The Oc-
cident taught the Orient a good deal
about propaganda during the World
War, and after. / suppose we ought
not to complain II the East desires to
pay us the flattering compliment Of
initiating oilr ways.
If farfiung apathy Is a serious bar
rier athwalt the path to self-govern-
ment In India a hardly less formidable
obstruction IL the endless divergence Of
viewpoint due to racial, religious and
tribal differences. In many cases these
differences are outright aninaosities. II
there were nothing but the ancient
antipathies which separate Moslenn and
Hindu. they of themselves would be
enough TO I'LL the Indian picture with
almost insuperable difficulty. The TO-
100000 Mosleriis in the realm are in
sistent upon certain forms of guaran-
teed and exclusive political rights.
which constitute a first-class Indian
problem of its own, irrespective OF any
other one OF the myriad problems that
must be met. How to reconcile the