FUTURE OF INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 34, 10 February 1933, Page 7

FUTURE OF INDIA

ROUND TABLE RESULTS

A BROADCAST REVIEW

OUTLINE OF. SCHEME

(From "The Post's" Representative.) . LONDON, 29th December. Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India, broadcasted an account of the work of the Indian Eouud Table Conference. f When the- complexities and contrasts of the vast Indian Continent were remembered, he stated, it would not be said that they had been wasting their time. The issues were much too difficult and grave to be rushed. Two centuries of British partnership with India had imposed great responsibilities on our shonlders. These responsibilities we could not set aside, nor with all our record of great and stable government could we allow, changes to take place that would plunge India into instability and confusion. For more than two years, then, they had been trying to harmonise three elements—Great Britain, British India, and the Indian States— which, if they were not brought into tune, would become more and more discordant. This had meant an attempt to assign the duties for which each of the three interests would in future be responsible. It had also meant that British and Indians alike had inevitably realised that there were certain conditions that must be satisfied before any progress could be made. First, India must have a greater measure of Belf-government. Every inquiry, including the Simon Commission, had emphasised this essential need. Secondly, there must be no encroachment on the rights. of the Indian Princes Other than, the lights that they themselves might wish to cede to an Indian Federal Government. Thirdly, the obligations that have resulted from the British partnership with India must be effectively safeguarded. These were the conditions . that they had been trying to satisfy in their long discussions. He did not say that they had solved all the difficulties, he did not say that they had reached agreement upon all of them, but he did say that as a resultof the three Bound Table Conferences a scheme was' emerging for the future consideration of Parliament that would, ho believed, safeguard the rights and interests of each of the three parties— Great Britain, British- India, and the India of the Princes—and would at the same time give Indians greatly in' creased scope for managing, their own affairs. THKEEFOHfc) SCHEME. The scheme was bound to be complicated. _ It was certain to be full of anomalies. It would be open to criticism as much from the extreme Eight that wanted no change as from the- extreme Left that clamoured for complete change. . Could they expect anything olse when they remembered the exceptional complexities of their task? In the first two Conferences they marked out the ground. In this last Conference they had been following the -wise injunction of the poet William Blake and had "been labouring well the minute particulars." . The form that the scheme had taken was something like this:— First, a Federal Government, representing the Indian States and the Indian provinces. The purpose of a Federal Government was to provide for the management of matters which were of common concern to the units composing it. The Indian Federal Government would be responsible- for administering a list of Federal subjects—namely, those that affected all India, such as Customs duties, commerce, posts, ■ and railways. Next, autonomous provinces, that was to say, provinces that to all intents ana purposes would for the first time govern themselves, and, side by side with the provinces, the Indian States, which had never ceased to manage their own internal affairs; As to the size of these units, Hyderabad, for example, had a much large population than Belgium, and the population of Bengal was greater than that of Great Britain. _ Lastly, 'a field of Imperial obligations, such as defence, foreign affairs, and a general obligation to maintain the financial stability ■" India, and for protecting India from any grave menace to internal order for -which there would be imposed a special responsibility on. the Governor-General, acting as the representative of the British Crown. BOUND TABLE TRADITION. This was the threefold scheme.. Iv the next, few .months they intended to draft it into precise form and to place it before a Strong committee, reprcsentive' of the main bodies of opinion in Parliament. The proposals had behind them a substantial body of Indian opinion, as was shown, by, the proceedings of the Bound Table Conference. Moreover, the British delegation had included such leaders of different schools of thought as the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, Lord Beading, Sir John Simon, and Lord Irwin. Neither' in the letter nor the spirit would they be found to transgress'tho pledges that had been given to India on tho one hand and Great Britain on the other. East and West Had met together in the friendly atmosphere of a Koyal palace. East and''We;:*-, had sat at the Bound Table on terms of mutual equality and had placed their hopes and fears in the common pool of discussion. This intimate relationship would have a lasting influence upon future dealings with India. It was indeed appropriate that the chamber, in which they held their discussions of the last few weeks was His Majesty's Bobing Boom in tho House of Lords. Upon the wall was a fresco depicting King Arthur welcoming Sir Tristram and his friends to the Companionship of the Bound Table. In their own way they were trying to maintain King Arthur's^ tradition and to welcome their Indian^ friends to tho perpetual companionship of the Bound Table of the British Empire.