Prey Leeds, May 6.
To-day Lord and Lady Irwin re: ceived from, the Corporation of Leeds an enthusiastic civie welcome, in recognition of their services to the Empire in India. In acknow-Jedging the presentation of a special address Lord Irwin made a notable speech in exposition of the realities of the Situation in India, He specially referred to certain attacks on his administration by a section of the British Press and pointed out the harm" done by irresponsible writings to the cause of Great Britain in India. He sai "You said, my Lord Mayor, thet had tried to do in India had ith some degree of criticism, but Jer meat Iment of speech or writing in Eng-fland about Indian affairs. It is quite impossible to assess the damage that these things do, and I know fetter, than any men here that all that damage comes directly on to the shoulders of whoever is: his Majesty's Viceroy in India, "Therefore it is that I appeal-to you, and through you to the great public who write and who speak and who think outside, to remember the responsibilities that to-day rest jupon Lord Willingdon, and," when-
exercise the restraint of making speak or write oF thi jan effort to put yourself in the position of the Indian who will read ithe words uttered in England, and by doing 20 to facilitate the great my critics, because T think facts themselves will speedily re to what extent the diagnosis of the more violent of them Is out of place. But let me say this much, that, how: ever, impervious public ' life' may render one to criticism—and I sup pose that that is one, indeed, of the Principal merits of" public' life—there is no man who does not attach 4 high value to the good regard and the friendship of his earliest friends and. his closest neighbours, and that why T cannot receive to-day your welcome in this great hall without feeling a peculiar rush of gratitude that it should "have entered into jour minds $0 40 welcome Lady Inwin and myself-on cay return to our motive country,"
After recalling his successive personal relations with Leeds from his boyhood onwards, Land Irwin went oni—"The Lord Mayor truly said hat the last India nop: been very. happened that, 1 country in the task of dealing wit the Indian problem, nor have 1 ever
fable to reach an agreement with Mr. opposed that the act hat 1 was Gandhi vwo months ago would automatically solve all diticulties, any
across the ocean would suppose more than the mariner who! sails that, because the wind drops after tornado has been raging, the sea would automatically and' instant-Jancously resume the calm for which lhe longs. It is not natural to human nature, when passion on all sides has been moved, when men thought and said "and done wild things, that they. can instantancously or' rapidly be Brought back to, the normal, "I am also well aware of economic reactions of much that is passing in - India in this son, a distinguished son. of Leeds, and a son of " father whom. Leeds was pleased to -honour, *alor with b ved, "can only -be solved reasonable' discussion, and: that London, Apr. 20.
Nothing better illustrates how Jpublic opinion may be roused and all parties unite in Great Britain fon a subject in which interest is really stirred than the debate at {the second reading of the Town and Country Planning Bill, framed by the Minister of Health: people is love of the [countryside more strongly developed chan the British. Here, perhaps, their Saxon ancestry shows itself more actively than in any other respect. For the first Saxons were essentially rural in their tastes; they. mistrusted towns and it was many years after their arrival in;,|{England before they really began to settle in them, during which deserted legions Augusta ginal London) which had been withdrawn to Italy, and by its British inhabitants flee-from the Saxon invader, fell to ruins. That is why, incidentally, there' are few Roman remains and [practically no Roman customs surviving in London to-day.
This love of the country has been immensely stimulated since the War ay. the growth of cheap motor wnsport, cheap cars, motor eyeies, tubes and motor coaches. These—mucics to be mentioned hundreds of thou-the humblest folk gi most [cherished ideal of "my own house in the country with a bit of garden" fry whllg working ina town to live' out of The result om land values round about London hasbeen prodigious. At Southgate £1,000 an acre is aakfea for land. that was. previously valved at £100 for agricultural oe At Edgware land that sold EL'g0 for before the extension of the tube now fetches £12 or 205. in shorthesst- Acton, where lyeers the palation has increased from. Pip A 20,000, the wee jand for p_ purposes: from £10 £0 £50 who foot in three years. The country round Icken-Rtn: Pinner aod Hatch Ed, which Sirf, Sykes, another Yorkshireman adoption, "at Trave be seeponabivis of Administration tin a aischtrging "gra
a great provinces of Bengal and omibaythroogh all these' recent iffeuit months: 0. one, perhaps, etter than fy is in. a option to fudge how aiicute their task has with what restrain, cours age," vigour, ands sympathy cand Understanding they, have. both, been Imecting the complications. of the Hine. "colonel 'Lane "Fox, another Yoxehireman not tneonnceted with Leeds or with "myself, was one tie Royal Comminsion ent out India' to make' the frst considered Feview of the new conditions India, which for two years. gave Mneridging and. devoted service iba cake Tnorming ce coun Lpmen of the generat petre they "might conceive. themselves to ave seen it. "We owe then and shim a very great debt of rative.
Land Zeeland, another Yorkshire: man, one of the Conservative repre: sentatives atthe Rounds Table Gone ference, speaking. with great Kron Ieage and great experience, hay con frittted much to the work of that dds, work swhieh you and 1 hope ill be shortly resumed amd brought tora successful jasue. And last but not least, if I may add to my, York-hike contacts, there is the "York shire Post." Thave had a copy every week of that paper in India, and T Wish to bear public testimony to the valle of the restrained and. wise gemments that have come from th "Yorkshire Post™ on Indian affair: 'Now I mention that particularly for this reason, because it is in marked contrast to' some other journalistic utterances that have not, a8 I ven= ture to think, done credit to British m or indeed im any way the solution of our Indian (ear, hear, "Ami those I have mentioned representing Yorkshire, and, of course, many more, have Jabouring, in whi press, if,1 may, 5 is the dominant task before us all of. getting Great Britain and India, the common mind of Great Britain and the common mind of India, to understand each other better than they do to-day. (Cheers.) I wish severe in my power to give you an estimate of the incalculable damage that hus been done in India by the unmeasured language, the clever epigram, the sharp "retort, that poems to be thought in some quarfers qn. indispensable accompani-was an essential preliminary that you should. restore calmer céndiions in India, in which, both on this side and on, that, these grave is [could be bravely, calmly, and dis-[passionately considered. There are extremists on both sides, extremists England and - extremists India, and I have often wondered who did the most harm.
"Those who desire change are not always sensible of the great traditions of the past, and those who dwell so firmly on the past disposed sometimes to forget that change fs one of the great laws of life, but between the extremists there is, I am satisfied, 1m both countries, India and England, a great mass of sane opinion that realizes certain things pretty clearly. It realizes the great benefits brought to India from the British connection. The British connection for example, has had-the effect of removing from India the spectre of a few yours ago-was a3 Toral jas any to be found a hundred miles: rom" London, Is. populous. with foal booses" ever "fesreasing' in number, But if cheap transvert has enabled hundreds of thousands to cut of town, ft has enabled ite, the years since thi be said that we build in haste and repent at leisure. The house famine fatter the War—during which restrictions on rent had disinclined Jowners to build new housee—was acute. Over-crowding was shocking and innumerable marriages were held up because couples simply could find nowhere to live, The insistent demand for new houses was met in many ways. the greatest agency was the s0- [called building societies (in fact they jao not allowed by law to build, except their own offices, but only to finance others) which lend up to 75 or 80 per cent. of the value of etiodie famine by the development of railway', the ike: gnngPehenigs, wether, to bay, "Sane opinion realizes also that|Or' repayment, How the. aetvities is not only inevitable. tut right that India's people. should want to manage the affairs of India. for themselves, and that English people would wish la similar eizeumstances do exactly the same thing, and, above all, that sane opinion realizes What great and vital issues for the British Empire and for the whol world, what relations between the coloured and the white races of the world, and what grave issues bang Upon the successful adjustment of those several and powerful forces that ave together at present operation in that pert of the British Empire.
know very well that T have made mistakes, because to human being, excep: avery few newspaper editors, is it given to be infallible, but I have no kind of doubt that the general line that we have sought to pursue during 1 last. years is right, and that pursuing it I have been wonderfully assisted by invaluable help from especially the India who have Jof these societies have grown is shown by the fact that in 1914 their new advances on mortgage, throughout Great Britain, totalled $8,761,950; in 1924 £40,584,606; and in'1939 (the year for which figures are avai ble) $74,718,748, tunate enough also to enjoy the' trust and confidence of all classes of Indians throughout the length and Breadth of that. great land, and. have also been constantly. able to Jgount upon the support of His Stajesty's Government in England."
Tin conclusion, Lord Tewin said he knew he had had behind him the ood wishes, the good. will and any prayers of his closest and dearest friends in' Yorkshive. He saw in the way in which he had been welcomed in Leeds a resign ion on the part of the representa tives and the citizens of that city of the fact that the adjustment of the relations of Great Britain and India was perhaps the most difiealt task with which British and Indian formed work of ale any Serseg in any country Proud. Thave enjoyed invaluable support from the European community in India, who have on. more. than one critical occasion assisted -powerf to guide and inform. public. opinion in this country. I have.been, for-statesmanship had ever Been conand he took the meeting to al of the determination to lend all their support to strengthen the hands of. those, whether "in England or in India, "who. were labouring that the solution might be wise and. might be for" the happiness -of -both countries.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.