What the Round Table Conference has Decided So Far: The Dang ers Ahead To the monthly London jo the European. Association, "India," Mr. Edward ra, President of has strongly supported the Irwin policy the Round Table Conference, Incidl difficulties whick may confront the leading business man of Calcutta. pepounds the present situation aod conference on ste verump!
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He was the first Calcutta man to wee. for. his tours, "Politically the term European ts equicetent to *Forcigner" ix When the Prime Minister adjourn-led the Round Table Conference in January, he expressed a hope thet. when it re-assembled there would be included representatives of those bodies of Indian opinion which had rejected invitations to be present at the first session.
Since then, through the intervention of Lord Irwin, Congress has decided to accept invitations to the Conference when it resumes, and Mr. Gandhi is to be the sole Congress delegate.
It is probable, also, that] the Conference will resume 3 work in London some time during the summer or early autumn.
Before this takes place, however, desirable, and indeed absolutely imperative, that certain matters should be made clear. Neither former members of the Conference nor the new delegates. should be allowed to make the journey if they fare under any misapprehension" as regards the future work of the Conference. Such misapprehensions are likely to arise—and in fact appear, from the reported conversations of Mr. Gandhi, already to have arisen—regarding the scope of future work. Mr. Gandhi—if the reports in the press are correct—scems to think that he will be at liberty to re-open everything, including all matters which have already. been settled. He appears to assume that the findings already recorded ore to be ignored, obliterated, washed out as if they had never been, and that he, Mr. Gandhi, as represent: ing the' Indian continent, is free to negotiate direct with the British Government regarding all subj This is not so.
There are certain whether in India or in England, will decline to take any further part in the Conference. If Mr. Gandhi in Jeoming to England thinks that he ig at liberty to suggest the removal or the whittling down of any safeguard already agreed upon, it will be better for him not to come.
'Not only our own community, but the Mohammedans, the depressed jelasses, and other' minorities have gone to the utmost limit of their ability in order to give the new ral Government the maximum authority and reality of po There are many who think that the limits of safety for a now and entirely untried political machine have already been dangerously exceeded, As far, however, ax the newark has already been tentatively and it is not open to Mr for to any other delegate to treat it as though it had not beer The chief matters which have thus been put beyond the sphere of future discussion, and which await only the: ry statutory clothing, future constitution, and it is therefore presumably not open to: fany one delegate without the con-t of the Conference as a whole to discuss the substitution of any other: principle as the mental basis. Similarly, the pri accepted that cert: be placed in certain guard India against some ob1 dangers. Except as regards 1m: ters which have thus been specific cally safeguarded, the future responsibility for the government and administration of India is to be transferred from the Secretary of State and vested in the Federal Government of India.
The nature and extent of the matters so withdrawn are known. They have been discussed in sub-committee and in full session of the Conference, and have been prosionally agreed and accepted by Conference. Unless it be Pecognised and acknowledged before the delegates leave for London that these matters are now no longe open questions, there is a grave risk that the representatives of some of the other communities and parties, have an awkward way of forcing themselves upon the notice of even the most earnest devotee of High Burlesque. So it may be discovered that all the joys of this new form of warfare can be indulged in; the older form must therefore be continued, as, otherwise, Geneva would have nothing todo. This is a difficulty. It should not be beyond solution by an age which manages to achieve starvation in the midst of overproduction and has produced Sir Oswald Mosley and Senator Borah. Mr. H. G. Wells, the inventor of the asterisk as well as the time machine, should be consulted. He will find the way, provided Mr. St. John Exvine wilh forget his taste in cigarettes. And why not let Geneva remove itself to Guam? Yes—that is the solution. has gone, the non-official community are. to agree, and have already ed" their provisional agree We shall make no attempt to go back thereon, But beyond there limits, generally speaking, we fare not prepared to go. If any wenipt to go beyond them ix made, then we may be foreed—and T say it with all seriousness and with full realization of the consequences, of fi/such a course of action—to with: draw from any further participation in the Conference. We believe that such action on our part would be followed by similar action on the part of so many delegates that its effect would be to leave Mr, Gandhi fand a certain section of the Hindu delegation alone with a few British (Government rep statement of the, probability fon further examination it will be shown not to be £0.
In the: first place, Mr. Gandhi, who is presented in his own and certain sections of the Hindu press India and even in our own press fat home as a Saint, as the Mahatma, coming to London not primarily Jas a saint or as a Mahatma, but Jas an astute though impractical politician with an extremely keen eye for a bargain, His asceticism and his saintship, however, genuine they may be, have proved powerful al weapons in his hands i and there ate elements in Great Britain with whom these attributes will also carry weight. Tle ig a capable press campaigner, and it is certain that no method of li creasing his prestige and his power of bargaining will be neglected. Never let it_be forgotten that his mission to England is that of a politician, and not a prophet.
'Mr. Gandhi is a man of many' attri tes. He comes of a stock managed the affaire of petty Indian rajahs in the days when intrigde of all kinds was rampant, He himself has been lawyer, stretcher-bearer, agitator, and politician. In India' he is able, with fluctuating success, to combine the roles of Saint and politician. There is little doubt that _his political influence is due far more to his reputation as a Saint than to any achievement in constructive polities. As an obstructionist he has hech Gery successful, but it is not at once apparent that he has to his credit any single achievement of a politically constructive nature. He has not been a social reformer, a religious reformer, or a political reformer, although there have been times when he has preached social reform with a courage to which I pay full deference.
But when he comes to London he come stripped of a good deal of his make-up, His asceticism will may be silly old women of both ig sexes who have already developed a Gandhi cult, it will hardly impose fon the solid common sense of the British peoples generally. As a statesman, assets are con: spicuously absent. cult of the simple life with his spinning wheel must remain a mere dream when moved from the medieval mysticism of Hindu India, Ie has nothing else to offer. Nor has he so far committed himself in words to any model of government which he would substitute for that which he calls Satani As a politician however, his abilities, non-constructive though they be, must not be under-rated, comes of a bargaining caste, in trigues is in his blood and he had the training of a lawyer. caste, by her experience he is a supreme T know of no one to touch him.
If the fate of the 950 millions. of Indi over the bargain-counter, to be decided Gandhi will have x good chance to influence the decision, Indians who have held ye held it with Indians who They have experience of administration and they have learnt handle Parliaments, Mr. Gandhi not among these been Indians who, Gokh rare title of states are today in India riy: who if somehow inferior in "in experience at all events ior than Gokhale himself.
is mot among these, While have laboured consteactively nil by their Jabours have afforded ingible justification for n India, Mr, Gandhi has ning and has encouraged Jaw breaking Gandhi is no, Solon and he is jolcon, He is no Gladstone, But since he has consented to the resumed Conference, people been talking as though he were not nly all of these, but a Mussolini nto the bargain, Since our newspapers print little news from India in which Mr. Gandhi does not appear, he is perhaps justified in getting a false to his importance in the relative scheme of things. But it is nevertheless necessary to consider, we have done, just what his per= sonal qualifications are and also what it is that he wants, He wants to substitute a Brahma Raj for the British Raj. Because there ate a few renegade Mohammedans in the Congress ranks, it must not be forgotten that they' re~ present loss than one per cent. of the Moslems of India, Congress is 4 Hindu body dominated by the Brahmin class and backed by the millionaire Indian mill-owners of Bombuy and Ahmedabad. It is not without significance that Congress has changed its headquarters, from Allahabad, a reli centre, to Ahmedabad, the Manchester of India, The move will not tend to free Congress from capitalist domination, Not only, however, do Gandhi and Congress stand for' the establishment of a Iindu Raj, they intend that the new Brahmin rule shall be completely unfettered, They intend to reject. all safeguards—constit tional and otherwise, There have been a good man pronouncements on safeguards lately, and it will help towards a true appreciation of the position to recapitulate some of them, The British Government is coning handing over the respon sibility for governing India to a new authority in India itself, provided—and this, of course, "is of, the absolute essence of that intention—the new authority is constituted in a particular way, and provided cer~ tain powers are reserved by Statute to other authorities, and provided also that the powers of the new authority are limited by Statule in certain respects.
Unless these reservations and imitations are accepted, and unless the new authority is constituted in an agreed manner, the transfer will not be made and Parliament will re~ main responsible, Firstly, as regards the new an: thority. Tt is to be constituted out of the whole of India, That is to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.