Colonel Wedgwood’s advice

COLONEL Wedgwood is so sincere a friend of India that any advice coming from him is bound to receive earnest attention at the hands of all patriotic Indians. The special article contributed by him to The Hindu, a telegraphic summary of which appeared in these columns yesterday, is a proof at once of the sincerity of his love of India and of that refreshing frankness which we have learnt to associate with his public utterances. The very opening words of the telegraphic summary are eminently characteristic of the man. “If Labour has done nothing for India during the past year,” he writes, “neither had India helped her own case. We are no nearer Home Rule than we were a year ago and there are five years of Conservative rule ahead. During these five years, anything may happen except the next forward step hoped for by all who love India and freedom.” Subject to one reservation, to which we shall refer, no words could have more admirably summed up the position. It is no small thing for one who was himself a member of the Labour Government to frankly admit that it did nothing for Indian during its term of office, and in spite of that term, India is no nearer Home Rule, to which Labour stands pledged, than she was a year ago. The reservation is only as regards the statement that India has not helped her own case. In the main, even this statement is true. The failure and the eventual abandonment of the much-advertised non-cooperation programme, on which so many in India seemed to pin their faith more or less exclusively three years ago, cannot surely be counted as a gain, except by those who believed that that programme alone stood between India and Home Rule.