The Breach Widens

Ever since Mahatma Gandhi pulled through his fast, Indians and British alike have been standoffishly waiting for a next move--for Gandhi's survival by no means closed the issue for which he failed to die. There were some moves last week, but they only widened the breach.

The British Raj issued a 76-page pamphlet entitled Statement Published by the Government of India on the Congress Party's Responsibility for the Disturbances in India, 1942-43. The pamphlet quoted at length from Gandhi's writings in the paper Harijan, from his speeches and those of Congress officers, from pamphlets and articles. Some were clearly inflammatory: "Leave India to God; if that is too much, then leave her to anarchy. . . ." "If in spite of all precautions rioting does take place, it cannot be helped." But some of the statements which were cited as evidences of treason echoed slogans which have had a certain appeal in U.S. history: "Let every Indian consider himself to be a free man. . . ." "Victory or death would be the motto of every son and daughter of India. If we live we live as free men. . . ."

One impediment to freedom has been the failure of the Indian National Congress party and the Moslem League to reach a common ground which would give India internal peace with her freedom. Last week, despite the differences, the Moslem League rose to the defense of the Congress and answered the White Paper. The League's paper, Dawn, remarked that it was not fair to present one side of the case while the defendant was held silent behind bars. "For the Viceroy to be both prosecutor and judge carries its own commentary."

Publication of the White Paper, said Dawn, "has not been designed to improve relations between the two countries. . . . In the fundamental demand for removal of British sovereignty, Indians are in agreement."

Industry's View. The industrial, if not the human, resources of India have been pretty well behind the war, and they have contributed substantially to Allied strength in the Far East. Nevertheless, a spokesman for Indian industry sharply criticized the British last week. Said G. L. Mehta, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry: "In India, the program of defense, civil or military, is not broadly based on popular will. The demand for application to India of principles for whose vindication the United Nations claim to be waging this war . . . has remained unheeded."

Mr. Mehta's statement was not entirely free of self-interest. Wrote New York Times Correspondent Herbert L. Matthews from Calcutta recently: "Big Indian firms like the Birla Brothers of Bombay finance the All-India Congress. . . . Indian rivals [of British businessmen] want to get their businesses away from them, and in that struggle much is involved, political as well as financial."

Correspondent Matthews also set down the Indian businessman's view: "The British (say Indians) have been overpaid many times for the good will and everything else through the enormous profits made for generations. Moreover, they claim, Indians have proved they are more efficient. . . . As one Indian said, it would have been all right if, like the Parsees from Persia, they had become Indians, absorbed in the country's structure, instead of remaining foreigners who exploit the country for Britain's benefit."

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