Right Asked for Índia to Determine Own Status London, Feb. 8.
The "Daily Herald" today published on the front page a statement signed by the Indian leader, Mr. M. K. Gandhi, declaring that his interview with the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, shows that a wide gulf still exists Between the British Government and Nationalist India and that what is offered is not real independence.
He demands that India, and not Britain; should determine what she needs. There will be no justice or virtue in Britain yielding to a successful rebellion, violent or non-violent, It is necessary for Britain to be just, to declare her determination to recognize immediately the freedom of India. This means, Mr. Gandhi says, that the Constitution should be framed by a constituent Assembly or its equivalent as scion as is practicable. There is no analogy between the Dominions and India. India's is a case by itself, and has to be treated as such, Mr. Gandhi declares.
"Every problems is of Britain's own making," Mr. Gandhi asserts, adding: "What has happened was doubtless the necessity of imperialism, but if imperialism dies, problems of Britain's making will be automatically dissolved.
He concludes his statement by saying: "Britain's moral victory will be assured when she decides, by a mighty effort, to abandon her immoral hold on India, and then her other victory will follow, as the day follows the night, for then' the con science of the whole world will be on her side. No such as is now offered can stir India's heart or the world's conscience."—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.