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402 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
superior force. It was as bad as the murder of Duncan by Macbeth. The blood stains left on His Majesty’s Government are as deep as those on Lady Macbeth and of which Lady Macbeth said that “All the perfumes of Arabia” had failed to remove the stink. That His Majesty’s Government does not like to be responsible for the execution of another deed of partition is quite clear from its policy with the Jew-Arab problem in Palestine. It appointed the Peel Commission to investigate. The Commission recommended partition of Palestine. The Government accepted* it in principle as the most hopeful line of solving the deadlock. Suddenly the Government realized the gravity of forcing such a solution on the Arabs and appointed another Royal Commission called the Woodhead Commission which condemned partition and opened an easy way to a Government which was anxious to extricate itself from a terrible position. The partition of Ireland is not a precedent worthy to be followed. It is an ugly incident which requires to be avoided. It is a warning and not an example. I doubt very much if His Majesty’s Government will partition India on its own authority at the behest of the Muslim League.
And why should His Majesty’s Government oblige the Muslim League ? In the case of Ulster there was the tie of blood which made a powerful section of the British politicians take the side of Ulster. It was this tie of blood which made Lord Curzon say “You are compelling Ulster to divorce her present husband, to whom she is not unfaithful and you are compelling her to marry someone else who she cordially dislikes, with whom she does not want to live.” There is no such kinship between His Majesty’s Government and the Muslim League and it would be a vain hope for the League to expect His Majesty’s Government to take her side.
The other thing I would like to say is that it would not be in the interests of the Muslim League to achieve its object by invoking the authority of His Majesty’s Government to bring about the partition of India. In my judgment more important than getting Pakistan is
*See Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 1938-39, Vol. 341, pp. 1987-2107 ; also (Lords) 1936-37, Vol. 106, pp. 599-674.