CONSTITUTION FOR INDIA.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20176, 3 March 1931, Page 7

CONSTITUTION FOR INDIA.

MR MACITONALDOS SPEECH. (took oca «vs coauspoxsurr.) LONDON, January 20. The Prime Minister, Mr Ramsay Mac Donald, was the chief speaker at a dinner given by the British-India Delegation to the Round-Table Conference at the Park Lane Hotejf Mr orinivasa tsastri proposed the toast o* "Our Guests." Referring to tho presence of Mr otaniey buldwin, lie said they could not presume to examine Jurn on his opinions witn regaru' to tbeir claims, ilut jilr iiaidwin would porhaps let hint say, on benait of tiio wiiole ot India, that they did not wish at bis hands any greater favour than he had already conferred upon tbeni by sending them an lliustnous Viceroy. The man who did them that service need not, do anything more to earn their imperishable gratitude. As to the, Prime Minister, their hearts had. been engaged by Mr Mac Donald in a way that could scarcely be described. lie had been perscouted, - but his courage had not been tamed. Friends had abandoned hioql but his faith in human' nature bad not' been dimmed*. Dangers of defeat had dogged his footsteps, but the Highlander in him had outlived it. 1 Mr JMacDonald, in reply, - said no hoped JLndia would' not liurget the eloquent and very trua ward&j spokea, by; Burke when he eaid that ''magnam-, mity in < politics is not seldom, the greatest virtue, and a great Empire and little, minds go ill together. He. must plead guilty to, bavins worked the Indian Conference hard, but he was born and -brought up in the bo-, lief 'that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to 'do," and his problem was how to keep wor SU Indians occupied in eood works. * M W® ha+e been facing a* very difficult problem," continued Mr. Mac Donald. "In constructing a Constitution for India we are trying to do a work no. one else has ever done before. The Constitution - which .India will have must be sui generis. The problems that the State has had to face have never been so difficult, so complicated, or appeared so insoluble? as tbose which the Indian and British delegates'have boon working on during the;last nine' weeks. The "great advantage of the Conference is tb». We have learned a great deal about each other, ana the greatest thing we have learned is teat, whatever we imagined" before we came here as to 'the possible oppositions to be overcome—that, for instance, yon would range-yourselves on-one aide? , and w<» would-range on the, ! other side 'whilst you' made your demands, and claims that, we would oppose tooth and) .nail—you have dweovered that, too, is one of the mythologies, that you nave/been harbouring m your ' hearts. , We have found that we were t all working for the same end, v and that if We made any Contributions at all it was to'bring you up against the nara fa<its of the situation which you » co-operation with us lad to overcome before you could reach the legitimate and laudable'goal that you had placed .before - yourselves. , "I believe, going to hammer out a Constitution under which India* will not only be happy, but wißl eniov a sense of. self-respect.. And* then it may be, my Indian friends, when our Constitution breaks down, ■ when here in London we are faced, with problems of a character, y.ou, having enjoyed the. blessings of, the Indian Consttution. will offer your kindly services,and come here to enable us to "redraft our Constitution m suoh a way that it will work harmoniously and justly so that this' country can enjoy the felicities and peace which; l heTieve you are going to enjoy m India when you make it possible for the new Constitution to be promulgated. We Efhall remember this feast, and .when you have performed your work as far aB we have performed ours we,shall invite you to a feast where we shall express our gratitude to you and tell you how much we have benefited by Indian advice and Indian example by ? squaring ; up communities,, > classeßj and interests, and fusing them into , one great unified expression of.®®; tional well-being and national unity.

The unique record of the Lawrj v '•family in the Methodist- Church ...was. 1 noted at the Methodist Conference at Dunedin. This record, as incorporated t in the Conference' records, was that Bev. Walter Lawry, colleague af the Bev. Samuel Leigh, in Australia, established the first Methodißt mission station in the South Seas in August, 1822. His' son, Henry Lawry, was the first Australian-born Methodist miniaf ter. For nine- years .he worked ,4be Maori mission district from south of Hokjanga to north ,o£ Wang&nui on, both sided of the island. It is on record that in each one of. those* nine yeara .he spent £220 tnore'th&n his stpejid on the Work of the mission. The, Bev. a.. C. Lawry, wljo has jast TetiredaftexK nearly 59 years of active ministry, was a son of Henry Lawry. This closes a remarkable record of 150 years ofwoHc in the Methodist toinistty., . v M fy r * 'ft.-.: \, W; r'.' * / ''J,>Vl