Orders of the Day — India and Burma (Temporary and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 8 October 1942.

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Photo of Mr Clement Attlee Mr Clement Attlee , Stepney Limehouse

I gladly respond to the note that was struck by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wakefield (Mr. Greenwood) in his speech. We all want to get a settlement of the Indian question. We must, however, face this problem in a spirit of realism, understanding that it is the problem of a continent, and an extraordinarily difficult problem. It is very easy to get a knowledge of only one facet of the Indian problem and then to make a speech characterised with great emotion, great fervour and great sincerity which nevertheless ignores the fact that this Indian Koh-i-noor diamond has a great many facets. The hon. Member for Aberavon (Mr. Cove) did that. He put the Congress case and did it with a great deal of assurance. It has been my lot to have taken part in many Indian inquiries over many years from 1927 onwards. I do not claim in the least to know India. I know only a little, but I do know how great are the difficulties. In the course of these inquiries I have gained a great affection for India. I have the friendship of many Indians, and I have met Indians, some of whom are under detention to-day and others of whom are free, with whom I have been on the closest terms of friendship, and am to-day.

We do not approach this matter as some abstract problem, but as a problem of how we are to get in this world the best conditions of freedom and life for a people with whom we have worked over a great period of years, and a people who are to-day in this war doing a wonderful service for the Allied cause. I entirely agree with the hon. Member for Abingdon (Sir R. Glyn). I doubt whether it is recognised enough how much India has done and what good fighting has been put up by India, by Indians in the Army, in the Navy and in the workshops. I suggest that some people in their enthusiasm for what they think is the Indian attitude have done less than justice to the effort of the Indian people.

It is a false assumption to think that all the people of India are sitting down thinking of political problems. Even in this country there are many people who think very little of political problems. There are vast numbers of Indians who are devoting themselves to the service of the war, and, of course, there are vast numbers who have hardly heard of the war or of the leaders of Indian opinion. That shows the vastness of the problem that faces us. I am sorry that the hon. Member for Camlachie (Mr. Stephen) repeated slanders against the people of Burma, whom I also know well, and amongst whom I have friends. It is not true that the people of Burma all yielded to the Japanese. It is true that there were some.