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THE JAINA GAZETTE
the wisest and firmest co-operation between British statesmen of all parties will be required.
India is now dominant and sobering as it ought to be and not before time. On the one hand the princes, their representative statesmen, and the other delegates, are arriving in London. Preliminary questions of procedure are already under informal discussion. On the other hand, Lord Irwin seeks to suggestionise the conference in his own sense before it begins to sit. Labour quarters last month were able to make the astonishing assertion that the Viceroy's dispatch on the political future of India recommends nothing less than 'diarchy at the Centre "-that is a mixed executive partly responsible to the Delhi Parliament and partly not. If this assertion be as true as confident, it means, in my judgment, that the Viceroy by another act of precipitate impulsiveness has rendered a grave disservice to India, Britain and the Conference alike. I say this on grounds of method, no less than on grounds of principle.
First as to method. It is most unwise as every experienced negotiator knows, to give away positions before a Conference begins. And why? Because you stimulate extreme demands in that way and weaken every counterpoise. Con.. cessions prematurely and gratuitously offered at the outset are ineffective; whereas even supposing them to be soundif they were reserved for a later and more critical point they might play a saving part. The Viceroy, in my view, has jeopardised India with the best of intentions because of a profoundly mistaken idea of method. When twelve months ago he proclaimed the goal to Dominion Status "that Mesopotamian word the result was partly to make the Congress concentrate on Dominion Status Now "! and partly to inflame the demand for full Independence which a few weeks afterwards triumphed at Lahore. Every single difficulty of the situation was aggravated. So with regard to the Conference itself. The chief original object was to bring the Congress leaders to the Round Table. Lord Irwin's method destroyed that possibility and defeated his own purpose.
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
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