THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Noma, Alaska
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editor*
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffir*
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, July 2,1947
India Independence, Big Experiment
(By Barnet Nover)
♦AUGUST 15, 1947, the second anniversary of the sur
render of Japan, will mark the beginning of one of the
most momentous political experiments in all history—
an experiment involving the fate of a fifth of the human
race.
On that day, the destinies of the subcontinent that is!
India, with its 400 million people of many races, reli-.
gions, castes and conditions of life, will pass wholly into'
Indian hands. By then—ten months ahead of schedule
—Great Britain will have completed her withdrawal
from that country, ending a rule than has lasted more!
than two centuries.
iHowever, the end of British rule in India may not
mean the end of the historic association between Great
Britain and India. ' |
Until June 30, 1948, India or the Indias—it may be,
partitioned into two nations—Hindustan and Pakistan
—will belong to the British Commonwealth of Nations.
This relationship may prove tenuous and temporary
since, after June 30, 1948, the government of India or.
more specifically, the governments of Hindustan and
Pakistan, may decide to withdraw from the common
wealth. :
It is tremendously significant, however, that the de
cision to assume membership in that international fed
eration of free and independent nations was not im
posed by Great Britain but voluntarily accepted by the
Indians themselves. Indeed, many of the Indian leaders
no doubt saw in this commonwealth membership the
only way in which that unity of India which now
threatens to be broken can be preserved in fact if not in
form.
One of the great objections the Congress party had
to the abortive Cripps plan of 1942 was that it threat
ened the unity of India by permitting provinces or
groups of provinces to decide whether to join the In
dian federation or go their own way.
This, essentially, is precisely what Pandit Jawahar
lal Nehru and the Congress party leaders have now
agreed to. The choice, as they saw it, was between par
tition and chaos.
For M. A. Jinnah and the Moslem, too, the agneed
plan falls far short of expectations.
Pakistan, as Jinnah envisaged it, would have includ
ed all of the Punjab, Bengal, Assam, Sind, Baluchistan
and the Northwest frontier province.
The plan as agreed upon makes possible a partition
of the Punjab and Bengal so as to exclude from Pakistan ]
those parts of those rich provinces which are not Mo
hammedan. The Sikh area of the Punjab, for instance,
is certain to vote to join Hindustan.
Even in its originally conceived form, it is question
able whether Pakistan#had the possibility of becoming
a viable state. The eastern and western portions are
separated by a great Hindstani corridor of over a thou
sand miles. However, in contrast to Hindustan, it is eco
nomically the less-well-off part of India.
It remains to be seen whether the Moslems, once they
have achieved their independence, can make their state
work.
Far Eastern Policy
(Rocky Mountain News)
JOHN CARTER VINCENT’S tenure as chief of the
State Department’s Office of Far Eastern Affairs ends
in August, under a regulation limiting foreign-service
t
career men to four years’ consecutive service within
the department.
Mr. Vincent’s reassignment will give Secretary Mar
shall a timely opportunity to reorganize this office in
order to bring our Far Eastern policies into line with the
American position in other parts of the world.
It is vital to do this before the Japanese and Korean
settlements, because Mr. Marshall must look to the Far
Eastern office for expert advice on problems in th?‘
area. And he should want better guidance than Presi
dent Roosevelt had at Yalta when the Soviet Union was
handed its Manchurian concessions.
It may well be that there are no actual Communis^
party members in this branch of the State Department.
But its policies have been consistently pro-Soviet and
pro-Chinese Communist.
uur policy in unina, as enunciated oy ivir. Vincent, s
the direct contradiction to our position in Greece. His
office defended Russia’s “closed door” policy in the
Dairen incident, and has been at open odds with Gen
eral MacArthur’s democratic program in Japan.
This conflict was highlighted last September when
the General issued a warning against Communist infil
tration. His statement, according to the newspaper.
“PM,” was “deeply resented by a number of important
State Department officials, one of whom was John Car
ter Vincent.... Other officials in the department agreed
with Vincent that MacArthur’s statement was unneces
sarily damaging to Soviet-American relations.”
The clique headed by Mr. Vincent generally reflects
the views of the Institute of Pacific Relations, now un
der the scrutiny of Congress because of its alleged pro
Soviet bias. Publications sponsored by the institute usu
ally are critical of American foreign policy, including
our relations with the Philippines.
If Mr. Vincent’s successor is under this same influ
ence, a change will bring no improvement in the Far
Eastern office. A complete break with that propaganda
organization is necessary.
WALKING THE DOG
mm
# . •
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
A
Tax reduction next year will be
welcome. But what most taxpay
ers want and need more than re
lief next year is relief now. Prom
ises of future cuts in federal taxes
are too much like the budget-bal
ancing promises which were fed
to American taxpayers for so
many years, and they savor of the
“prosperity-around - the-- corner”
talk we heard in the later years of
the Hoover administration.
Treasury Secretary Snyder’s ar
gument that Congress acted “has
tily” in voting to cut tax revenues
before determining the level of to
tal government expenditure does
not appeal to overburdened tax
payers. There is only one way to
curb the excesses of federal .tax
spenders. That is to cut them off
at the pockets. As long as they
have the money or can coax Con
gress to appropriate it. As long as
so many billions are being taken
into the treasury, they will insist
on keeping appropriations sky
high.
Public curiosity — not . Henry
Wallace’s personal popularity—
explains why sp many people paid
to see and hear him on his barn
storming tour. A lot of ]>eople who
go to a circus buy tickets to see
the tatooed man, the bearded
lady, etc. But that is no indication
they would vote for a sideshow
freak for President. Wtyen Bryan
was running for the Presidency
he drew the biggest crowds at
tracted by any candidate, but he
never was able to get enough votes
to put him in the White House. '
Almost every year millions of
acre feet of water go to waste in
the Missouri and Mississippi river
basins. That is water which could
be used profitably in arid and
semiarid sections farther west. The
only way some of these regions ’
could get it would be through pipe
lines. Cost of such water diversion j
now is prohibitive. But the time
may come when it will be just as
fe^ible as was construction of the
Big and Little Inch lines to trans
port oil from the southwest to the
northeastern area of the United
States during World War II.
Refusal of the House to override
President Truman’s veto of the ^
tax reduction bill is described as
a “Democratic victory.” But that
is one “victory” . the Democrats
won’t brag about in the 1948 cam
paign. Denying relief to the mil
lions of overburdened taxpayers
is the worst vote bait that could
be concocted.
When the House passed the tax
reduction bill, the vote was 220
for, to 99 against. The majority
was well over the two-third re
quired to repass the measure over
a Presidential veto. But when it
came to the question of overriding
the veto, the vote was 268 for, to
138 against—two short of a two
thirds majority. Some members of
Congress vote to pass a bill but
will not vote to override a veto by
the President of their party. That
is incomprehensible. Any Con
gressmen who changes his vote
in this manner puts himself in the
position of allowing the President
to make his decisions. ^
Of court*, the national debt
should be paid off as rapidly as
possible. But under the right kind
of administration, debt reduction
and tax reduction are possible at
the same time. And by cutting tax
rates, it might well be that federal
revenues would be increased so
there would be a larger surplus to
apply on the debt.
Tax-gouging impairs the ability
of people to be self-supporting.
President James H. McGraw of
the McGraw-Hill Publishing com
pany, recently pointed out that
only 1 per cent of all families in
this country now have incomes
large enough to build up a retire
ment fund or acquire a stake in a
business sufficient to support
them. That compares with 6 per
cent in 1929. ^
McGraw said that to retire on
an annual income from invest
ment that will buy as much as
$3,000 did in 1929, a young man
now must earn over $13,000 a year
for twenty-five years, which is
more than two and one-half times
the income he would have needed
in 1929.
Large Class
At U. Of A.
FAIRBANKS, </P) — Thirty-two
students from eleven states in the
United States and throughout the
Territory were enrolled as classes
began today at the first summer '
session of the University of Alas
ka.
The largest enrollment was in a
class in Arctic anthropology,
which will use the university’s
large museum collection of Eski
mo artifacts. Registration will con
tinue throughout the week, regis
trar Helen Jorgensen said. Six
professors are teaching, with
classes also being given in 'Alaska
{history, business administration
and English. h mumimi^—