A FREE HAND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 26 November 1927, Page 5

A FREE HAND

FOR INDIAN COMMISSION. “UNPRECEDENTED PATH WE ARE WALKING.’’ RESOLUTION OF APPOINTMENT CARRIED. (By Cable — Press Assn. — Copyright.) (Received 26, 12.0 p.m.) London, Nov. 25. In the House of Commons, Earl Winterton, Under Secretary for India. moving the appointment of the Indian Commission, said that India would bear the cost but that Britain would contribute £20,000. Combating suggestions that the Commission should include a representative of the Indians, he offered the opinion that it would be fantastic to imagine that any two Indians could possibly represent the various political, religious, and racial factors of India. Accredited representatives of the Indian -legislatures would be given every opportunity of emphasising their case before the Commission. No part of the Empire before receiving partial or complete self-govern-ment ever had such an ooportnnity of directly influencing Parliament. Mr. Ramsav MacDoP-ld, supporting the motion on behalf of Labour, regretted the lack of consultation with renresentatives of th" Indians before the announcement of the Commission. It ought to bo made clear that the Commission would meet committees of the Indian legislatures on the basis of a free exchange of views. TO SHAPE ITS OWN PROCEDURE Mr. Baldwin said the Government had deliberately left the Commission a free hand to shape its own procedure in India, though the British Parliament’s responsibility remained. The Government associated itself with Mr. MacDonald’s suggestion for the freest consultation with the sister Parliament. * Mr Baldwin added: “It is an unprecedented path we are walking but we are relying on the' instinctive sense of Justice deep in every Briton’s heart. “Milton wrote, “When God wants a hard tfiing done He tells it io Eis Englishmen.’ No harder thing has ever been told Englishmen than this matter. We shall do it with courage. faith, strength, and hope.” The resolution was carried without division.—(A. and N.Z.)