CRIPPS' MISSION NO FAILURE, RAISED MORALE, RAMAN SAYS

"Sir Stafford Cripps's recent journey to India was not a failure. On the contrary, it boosted public morale and gave the country a great amount of political consciousness," T. A. Raman, editor of the United Press of India, recently stated when interviewed in the midst of a general tour of the United States.

Ramann, lately stationed in London, has been broadcasting to India nightly. A member of a prominent Hindu family from the province of Madras on the East coast of India, he has had much personal contact with most of the nation's political leaders, including Gandhi, Nehru, and Mahandas Ali Jinnah, leader of India's 80,000,000 Moslems.

According to the editor, the main reason why the program was not acceptable to the All-India Congress was that many congress leaders felt, from Cripps's own statements, that approximately the same offer will be presented after the war. They, therefore said to themselves, "What is the use of accepting a plan which will give up, at best, two or three extra years of independence at a time when a probable Japanese invasion will result in martial law which, in turn, will virtually neutralize this newly-won independence."

Pointing to the fact that today India has an army of 1,000,000 men in addition to 60,000 volunteers a month, he gave assurance that the nation would resist Japanese aggression as valiantly and as long as China. "In man power, material and morale India at this moment is certainly as strong and probably much stronger than China was when Japan invaded her. If she is helped as much as China was, she will fight with equal effect, but that help, particularly in the form of naval and air superiority, is essential."

He discounted any chance of Moslem fifth columnism in India and gave as proof that most of the Army's volunteers come from Mohammedan regions, while the majority of Britain's Libyan forces are worshippers of Allah.