Arkansas State press. [volume] (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959, 1942-09-04
Conversation
Piece
by Marc Moreland, Phi d.

! The spectacle of Great Britain
stubbornly resisting all claims Oh
the Indian peoples before the law
and in the human conscience
would be incredible were we not
now all too familiar with the An
glo American seeming incapacity
to read the most simple handwrit-
ing on the walls of our times,
While it is true that the Indian
question Immediately is British
problem, it is nevertheless, by vir-
tue Of the global nature of the
present struggle, a question of
tremendous concern to all those
who fight with the United Nations
The United States cannot escape
its responsibility for what is hap
pening in India without ignoring
the global nature of our struggle
and failing to see the implications
Indian freedom now has on it's
favorable outcome.
India and The United Nations
Mr.. Upton Close, Mos Far
Eastern expert, heard each Sun
day at 3.15 over WEAF, talks
more sense, in our opinion, on the
Indian question and Far Eastern
affairs generally than all the other
d)mmentatnlk put togetheG. In
his broadcast of last Sunday he
raised these strikingly pertinent
questions; First, do the people of
the West recognize in the East
the fact of an Asian Renaissance '
and. second, given the two or7
posing lines of this Renaissance
the one toward freedom led by
China and India, an the other to-
ward enslavcment Of Asiatics by
Asiatics led by Japan-what line
are the Western democraeies pre-
pared to support?
The Fiery Trial
| As Mr.. Close says, the moral
| idcalism Of what the Western de-
imocracies like to- boast Is passing
I through a trial of fire. Already
because We have not made up our
mind which line in the Asian sit
uation to support about we have
lost a moral victory to Japan and
'are inperil of losing a military
one. Either we are for freedom
for India and the Chinese or We
are preoccupied with contestine
the right of Japanese imperialism
to- displace Western imperialism
And since it is nowhere possible
to convince an oppressed and prat
tically enslaved people that it,
necessary to keep them oppressed
and enslaved in order to win theil
freedom, Britain, and her powerful
and influential ally the United
States, can hardly be said to ht
following the line of Asiatc free.
| dom and independence.
The Arrest of Indian Leaders
| Given the British determination
to fight the war in the East with.
out granting India freedom now
the arrest Of Gandhi and Nehrl
and other Indian leaders was K
be expected. The question, the
answer to which the British should
anticipate and which history will
surely give, is; How can Britar
not grant India her political free.
dom now for the great moral anC
| physical strength it would give
to the British-American position
in the East and for thus firing
the hearts of millions to carry OF
an effective and winning figh
against the new world-oppressors
The arrest of the Indian leaders
is a logical and necessary even
only within the frame of a stu
pid and unimaginative political anC
military policy. So far from hell
ing the Allied cause in the East
it will weaken it perhaps heyoaC
repair.
Writing in the New Rapubli
Of August 10, Frederick L. Shu
man, Woodrow Wilson prcfesso
Of government at Williams Col
lege, says:
"The absence Of any positiv
program in the name of which
! subject peoples can be rallied t