Mr. Wedgwood Benn on the Conditions Now Prevailing: Call for Volunteers to Carry on British Boycott London, June 2.
An appreciation of the situation in India, covering the incidents of last week, was given in the House of Commons today by Mr. Wedgwood Benn, the Secretary of State for Indi He stated that the tribal situation was unchanged and that faction by the Air Force continued against definitely located positions.
TAs regards the internal situation, the Peshawar district had been less satisfactory and an increase in Congress activity was reported from Dora Ismail Kha The outstanding feature else where, Mr, Wedgwood Benn con-wried, had been a number of local disorders. The most serious was at Rangoon where, however, no ill-feeling was shown towards the police of Europeans.
Several provinces report definite signs that Congress activities are tending in the direction of the "no-tax" campaign but, up to the present, outside of Gujerat, there have few instances of actual refusal to pay taxes.
'A significant feature in the situation, concluded Mr. Wedgwood Benn, has been the organization of an expression of Mohammedan political aspirations in preparation for the practical work which will follow the Simon Commission's report On. a motion for adjournment in the House of Commons this evening, Earl Winterton, late Conservative Under-Secretary of State ved the question of Commonist propaganda in India.
Ve recalled that in the Government of India's comauorigné of May 5 there was disconcerting reference to con also drew. the attention House to the activity shirts," who had been responsible for a' great deal of the trouble India and for the death of a very, tinguished police officer.
Continuing, Earl Winterton also drew attention to a recent statement made by the Soviet State Publishing Department, in' which reference was made to the work of Comintern agents in India and asked whether the Secretary for} Foreign Affairs contemplated bringing the matter to the notice of the Russian Government on the ground that the latter's promise to refrain from hostile propaganda ji the British "Empire had broken.
Mr. Hugh Dalton, Under-Seeretary for Foreign Affairs, in reply said that until a full report had been received from the Government of India it would be premature to conte to a definite conclusion regarding the part, if any, which the Communists mizht have in the He added that the promise given by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs to take the House into his confidence in the event of a grave breach of. the pledge given by the Soviet to refrain from hostile propaganda the British Empire still held good. He recalled that the Government had recent established machinery to examine all allegations of Communist propaganda. It and when full report had been received from India of these events they seemed to bear the mark of Communist agitation, then the evidence ould be handed over for further examination in connection with all the other evidence already being dealt with—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.