GREAT BRITAIN: Indian Conference

Scene: The Royal Gallery Of The House Of Lords in which His Majesty George V opened last winter the London Naval Conference (TIME. Jan. 20).

Time: Twelve noon when His Majesty opened last week the Indian Round Table Conference to determine the future status of one-fifth of the population of the globe.

Properties: the King-Emperor’s spectacles (in his breast pocket), his speech (borne by his private secretary Baron Stamford-ham), his Throne (portable), the Chair (portable), and the Round Table consisting of two U-shaped tables, one within the other, both facing the Throne, seating together 86 delegates.

(As the splendorons scene opened the ruling Princes and Maharajas of the Native States [see map] moved about greeting one another with low salaams. Each placed his hands crossed upon his breast as he bowed. All manifested proud hauteur to ward the mere civilian delegates of British India. Scorned by these in turn, two miser able delegates of India’s untouchables [lowest class] scuttled to their places. All the Princes and Maharajas were gorgeously pugreed [turbaned], but all except a few were somberly, impressively clad in long ajkans [tightly-buttoned, turtlenecked black frock coats]. Overawed, Correspondent Raymond Gram Swing of the New York Evening Post cabled of the princes:

“In color, costume and bearing, in the lines of some of their ascetic, sensitive faces they were the ones who seemed to be the superior race. Beside them the pallid little Englishmen dressed in the dull sobriety of bank clerks were like subordinate assistants. Even King George in morning coat minus the accustomed white carnation in his buttonhole, was more like a company director than a monarch.”)

The Emperor of India (Entering accompanied by Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald, taking his stance in front of the gilded Throne, glancing deliberately about while the assemblage bowed, dipping for his spectacles and putting them on, receiving his manuscript speech from Lord Stamfordham, facing his special gold & silver microphone, holding up his speech with hands that trembled slightly):

It affords me much satisfaction to welcome in the capital of my Empire the representatives of the princes, chiefs and people of India. … I shall follow the course of your proceedings with the closest and most sympathetic interest; not, indeed, without anxiety, but with a great confidence. … I pray that Providence may grant you in bounteous measure, wisdom, patience and goodwill.

(As George V stepped away from the microphone and left the hall, four minions grasped the Throne, shoved it back against the wall, replaced it by the Chair.*)

The Maharaja of Patiala, Maj. General His Highness Bhupindra Singh. Hon. Aide de Camp since 1922 to George V. (Deep-chested, tremendous, with close-braided beard and heavy-lidded, magnetic eyes, expression and reputation sensual and sinister; from beneath his turban peep a pair of earrings each consisting of two pearls, diamond-set and large as cherries):

The gracious address which His Majesty the King has just delivered strikes a responsive chord in our hearts. … As Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes I have the honor to propose that the Prime Minister should be appointed as Chairman. . . .

The Aga Khan, His Highness the Aga Sultan Sir Mohammed Shah, Chairman of the British Indian Delegation (Descended from the Prophet’s daughter Fatima and therefore holy to millions of Mohammedans although frankly subsidized by the British Government, owner of the horse that won this year’s Derby, he wears a faultless cutaway):

I have great pleasure in seconding the proposal of His Highness the Maharaja of Patiala.

James Ramsay MacDonald (Taking the Chair by acclaim):

Your Highnesses, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have first of all to thank the Maharaja of Patiala and His Highness the Aga Khan. . . . My first duty as Chairman … is to ask your consent, and I know it will be forth coming . . . , that I should convey our humble duty to His Majesty. . . . Also . . . our loyal and grateful appreciation of the kindly solicitude of Her Majesty the Queen. . . .

We are now at the very birth of a new history ! The declarations made by British sovereigns and statesmen, from time to time, that Great Britain’s work in India was to prepare her for self-government have been plain*. . . .

We have come here to sit at one table with the set and sole purpose of India’s advancement within the companionship of the Commonwealth. . . . Things have been said in the past, whether in anger, in blindness or for mischief, which we had better forget at these tables! . . .

The Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda, His Highness Sir Sayaji Rao III (A grizzled gaffer in a scarlet skullcap, showIng off the fact that he alone of the princes present attended the 1877 Durbar at Delhi when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress):

. . . We are deeply beholden to His Majesty. . . . This scene involves the prosperity of India’s millions. . . . Indeed [here he began to quote from Victoria] “in their prosperity [is] our strength: in their contentment our security; and in their gratitude our best reward. . . !”

The Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir, Colonel His Highness Sir Hari Singh (Notorious some years ago as “Mr. A,” famed today as a benevolent reformer): …

As allies of Britain we [the princes] stand solidly by the British Empire. . . . We are not assembled to dictate or to accept terms. We are met together to accept mutual interest for the common benefit! . . .

The Nawab Sir Akbar Hydari representing the Nizam of Hyderabad, Premier Feudatary of the Crown:

His Exalted Highness, the Nizam of Hyderabad, counts among his proudest titles that of “Faithful Ally of the British Government.”* As with Hyderabad, so with all the States. I can assure the people of the Empire and the World that no hand shall sever the ties which bind the Princes to the Crown!

Mr. Srinivasa Sastri (No. 1 Hindu Liberal, injecting the first controversial note):

. . . Two statements of policy [the Montagu Declaration of 1917 reaffirmed by two recent statements of the Viceroy] shine like bright stars by which we can guide ourselves [to] the attainment of Dominion Status. . . .

Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Associate of the famed “Ali Brothers” whose violent Mohammedan nationalist program preceded the non-violent Gandhi movement for independence, turning somewhat sarcastically upon Mr. MacDonald):

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.

* Earlier in the week Mr. MacDonald, speak-insr at Guildhall, was heard to say that the Conference would be engaged in “broadening liberty” to give India “dominion self-government” and this sensational news was cabled to India.

Later the Prime Minister’s office reprimanded correspondents for their “error in audition,” declared that what had sounded to them like “dominion self-government” were the words “freedom in self-government” actually uttered by Scot MacDonald. Fortunately the British censor could prevent the Indian press from printing this slip.

* Like the Maharaja of Mysore, the Nizam of Hyderabad was prevented from attending the Conference by a tradition that he must never leave India. Ruler of a land larger than New England and almost twice as populous, His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah Sir Usman Ali Khan is thrice a Nizam, a Nawab and a British Hon. Lieut.General.