(3 of 4)
I am glad, Mr. President, that you referred to the fact-that the declarations made by the British sovereign and statesmen "from time to time" have been "plain. ..." I must emphasize that India now expects the translation and fulfillment of these declarations into action! ... I must express my pleasure at the presence of the Dominion Prime Ministers. . . . They are here to witness the birth of a new Dominion of India!
(Forty-five minutes having elapsed, the Conference adjourned and left the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords, would hold its later sessions around an elliptical table in Queen Anne's Room at St. James's Palace, the Secretary-General of the Conference being installed like an operatic prompter in the late Queen Anne's boudoir).
Significance. The Princes and the Untouchables (not one of whom uttered a word to the Conference last week) may be expected to side with His Majesty's Government no matter what happens; the Princes because they are dependent on British might to maintain their position of feudal splendor in the face of democratic trends; the Untouchables because, although championed by St. Gandhi, they still feel that India's democratic trend has not gone far enough to protect them from oppression by the higher castes, they look to Britain for whatever protection they are likely to receive.
Thus Britons, Princes and Untouchables will be dealing as a unit with what? Other Indians, primarily inhabitants of so-called "British India," are represented at the Conference by a delegation which, although including some burnt-out firebrands, such as a survivor of the "AH Brothers" faction, is composed of "Indian Liberals" and ''Indian Moderates."
Quite accurately the latest Encyclopedia Britannica observes in discussing current Indian politics: ''The moderate or liberal element of earlier years has virtually disappeared." Thus British India is represented at the Conference by a group of have-been statesmen chairmanned by the frankly British-subsidized Aga Khan.
In vain Viceroy Lord Irwin tried to get to London some representative of the Indian National Congress or its spiritual leader St. Gandhi. These Indians, comprising the largest, most resolute, most highly organized body of Indian public opinion quietly boycotted the Conference, continued last week their non-violent demonstrations for Independence (see p. 21). St. Gandhi squatted placidly spinning in Poona Jail. Jailed also are some 30.000 Gandhites, including Jatindra Mohan Sen Gupta, "The Lord Mayor of the Second City of the Empire," Calcutta.
As one observant foreign diplomat said privately afterward, "It was a wedding without the bride." What the Indian Round Table Conference can do is to rehash the Simon Report and another made last week by Viceroy Lord Irwin (see col. 3), write its own report, possibly agree on a draft text for a new Indian Constitution, finally present all this as a fait accompli to the Indian National Congress, Gandhi & Friends.
* At the opening of the Naval Conference the Throne was entirely removed after His Majesty's departure, thus provoking a storm of irate questions as to whether the Labor Government had intended to symbolize anything by this maneuver. They had not, but were taking no chances last week.