The Sinews of Peace by Winston S. Churchill

Author:Winston S. Churchill [Churchill, Winston S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Western
ISBN: 9780795329555
Google: DqLfAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Published: 2014-02-11T03:09:41+00:00

INDIA CABINET MISSION STATEMENT ON THE ADJOURNMENT

A SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

16 MAY 1946

12 May—Britain’s newest battleship, H.M.S. Vanguard, is christened by Princess Elizabeth at Greenock.

16 May 1946

I think the right hon. Gentleman [The Prime Minister] was right to read to the House the able but melancholy document to which we have listened, and it was appropriate that he should read it, instead of merely circulating it with the Votes. Certainly I have heard nothing for a long time which so deeply deserves the attention of Parliament and of the British nation, and the respectful attention which the House gave to every word uttered by the Prime Minister is a proof that this opinion is well founded. It would, of course, be most unwise this afternoon for any of us to attempt detailed comment upon the long and complicated proposals which have now been laid before us. I am bound to make clear without delay what is the position of the official Opposition. I, as the head of the Coalition Government and my colleagues of those days, are committed to the offer made to the people of India at the time of the Cripps mission in 1942, by which we offered Dominion Status as expressed by the Statute of Westminster, including, as it does, the latent right of secession. We offered this to the many peoples of India, subject to certain provisions.

The first of those provisions was that there should be broad, real, sincere agreement between the main Indian parties. The second was that in the Constitution we should have provision for the honourable discharge of the obligations we have contracted in India towards the minorities who, added together, are themselves a majority, and, also, for the discharge of those obligations embodied in our treaties with the Indian States. These proposals were made by us at a moment when the danger of Japanese invasion threatened India in a terrible manner, and I, personally, was induced to agree to them by the all-compelling war interest, as it seemed, of trying to rally all the forces in India to the defence of their soil against Japanese aggression and all the horrors that would follow therefrom.

The Cripps mission failed. The answer which Mr. Gandhi gave to the British Government at that moment of mortal peril was “Quit India”; and he and the Congress proceeded to raise or encourage a revolt, or widespread disturbances, affecting, principally, the communications on which the British and Indian Forces relied for holding the threatened fronts. These disorders, although seriously fomented, were suppressed with surprising ease and very little loss of life, and the incitement to revolt found practically no response, outside the political classes, from the great masses of the Indian people. We persevered with the war; we toiled on; and presently the tide turned. India was successfully defended, and it emerged from this second world convulsion of our lifetime protected from external violence by the arms, sea power and diplomacy at the disposal of the British

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.