Evening star., 1946-03-03

in principle before the opening of the
negotiations.
There is the difnculty OF the scale of
intrigues and maneuvers which will
weigh down each issue and each moment
OF the long task Of arriving at agree
ment. There Is the dificulty Of public
rumors. India is one of the most rumor-
mongering countries in the world. In
this aspect the sheer clamor which will
arise as every runior goes on its ex-
panding way is likely to be one of the
major handicaps on the road to sue
cess.
There must be success. No one on any
side can afford to contemplate failure.
So that while British responsibility is
heavy, I pray that Indians of all shapes
and opinions may recognize that theirs
is heavy responsibility, too. They and
the British committee are not merely
making constitution but, in very real
sense, may be deciding the fate Of civil
ization.
That is why all must enter the negoti-
ations not with the resolve to get their
claims hundred per cent but with the
passionate determination to arrive at a
reasonable agreement. Jnnah has not
merely to answer as to what he accepts
to the Moslem League, but must answer
to the whole future India. So, too, with
the British committee, with Gandhi
and Azad, with Nehru and Dr. Anbekar
r~,,ll E-L T>~eS~u~
They have all come to the stage where,
if they cannot see their demands In
world perspective, they betray civiliza-
ton. For in their capacity to find COM
mon principles depends peace and war,
the future of many nations and the
whole shape of things to come in Europe
as well as the Far East.
A successful agreement will immedi-
ately ease all the deep tensions in the
Middle East. It will soften the acerbities
of the Mediterranean issues. It will
enable fuller attention to be given to
the urgent tragedies of ravaged Europe
and, not least Of all. it will turn much
of what is the finest of the political
leadership of India from destructive to
a constructive task.
1t will enable the Indians to give all
their might and heart to what is the
central problem of India-the power to
transcend the ruthless, crippling poverty
in which its 400 millions largely live.
I have been in favor of Indian inde-
pendence for over 20 years, ever since,
by mere chance, I sat in the English
Amritsar libel case and learned at first
hand the truth Of the great saying that
no nation is ever fit to govern another
nation.
I believe that if we had the good
fortune to make treaty which viii give
free India full right to govern itself
and If that treaty is made in the spirit
of magnanimity, its achievement will
clear the dark atmosphere into which
our civilization has passed. It will begin
the great task Of using the victory Of
the Second World War to accomplish the
aim for which it was fought.
The Attlee government has taken q
big step forward. If its members in
india go on patiently and fearlessly
along the same path, they may ind in
India leaders with the same patience
and lack OF fear that this first step has
revealed.
We have been in the dark and had an
ugly time for more than generation in
the relations between Britain and India.
I hope with all my heart that al those
to whom this mighty issue has been
confided will have the wisdom to draw
back the curtain and let in the first
light Of dawn.
tccpyrisht. 1896. Overseas News Agency. lne.)