Menace of Independence

Highly agitated was His Britannic Majesty's lean and dramatically tall Viceroy of India, Baron Irwin, when representatives of what might be called India's "farm bloc"--the Bihar Landholders' Association --met recently, in Calcutta, and adopted a resolution demanding for British India a new Constitution "not in blind imitation of the West."

Interpreting this as a veiled intimation that what the "farm bloc" really demands is Indian independence, Lord Irwin rushed to Calcutta and delivered what was, for an Englishman, a remarkably passionate pronouncement:

"It is not difficult to forecast what must be the reaction upon British opinion of this assertion of independence as the goal of a great political party, by persons who would claim the title of responsible politicians. Those in Great Britain who sympathize most warmly with the idea of India attaining at the earliest possible moment the status of any of the other great dominions of the Crown will find the ground cut from under their feet if British opinion ever becomes convinced that so-called dominion status was valued by India only as a stepping-stone to a complete severance of her connection with the British Commonwealth.

"Loyalty to the British Crown is the only thing that forms a bond between Hindu and Moslem, Brahmin and non-Brahmin, Punjabi and Madrassi, British India and Indian States. Destroy that, and you have, by violating the most cherished sentiment of millions, erected an enduring and inseparable barrier to the achievement of a free Indian nationhood! "I can feel no doubt that this demand for independence must do an irreparable injury to India's cause, and sadden the hearts of the wiser of India's sons and friends."

Having spoken, the tall cadaverous Viceroy stepped into his sumptuous private car and sped back to New Delhi, the glistening white and red sandstone capital of British India. There Lord Irwin busied himself in arranging a counter demonstration against Independence. Naturally it was to the Maharajas, the princes of India, many of whom are supported on their petty thrones by British might, that the Viceroy turned. Presently no less than 40 of these resplendent potentates addressed, to the Chamber of Princes in New Delhi, most powerful pronouncements against what several of them called "the menace of independence." Each little Raja or big Maharaja read his speech from a typewritten copy, and the perfect unanimity of the proceeding was an impressive tribute to what is called "the genius of Great Britain for governing Backward Peoples."

"The suggestion of independence conveys a menace!" cried the Maharaja of Patiala, a gentleman and a sportsman renowned all over Europe for the profusion of pearls which he wears, and bestows on complacent ladies.

"The loyalty of us princes to the British Crown is no mere figure of speech!" declared the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, notorious some years ago as "Mr. A." (TIME, Dec. 15, 1924), the victim of an English woman who blackmailed him out of $750,000.

"Let the princes have no part or lot in such wild political theories," counseled the Maharaja of Alwar.

When the Chamber of Princes had signified unanimous approval of these sentiments, Lord Irwin solemnly declared that this resolution was the most important which the Chamber had ever adopted.