INDIA’S ENEMIES

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1929, Page 7

INDIA’S ENEMIES

GOVERNMENT TO TAKE STRONG MEASURES. NEW DELHL, India, April 16. Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, in addressing a joint session of the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State this morning, referred to the bomb outrage in the Assembly last Monday, and continued: It is partly because, through the corporate person of this Assembly, a direct threat has thus been levelled at the whole constitutional life of India and everything which that life includes that 1 have thought fit to summon the two Houses together here to-day. I have never concealed my view of the gravity of the danger which, if vigilance were for a moment relaxed, would menace Indian society, and 1 wt uld urge honourable members to ponder long and seriously upon what lie behind the recent incident. To go no farther back than the last icw months, India is disgraced by the order in Lahore of that young and most promising police officer, Mr ...aunders, and the gallant Head Contable, Clianan Singh, and still more recently of a highly respected Indian police officer in Barisal, and, lastly, by the outrage here.

As head of the Government of India . ■ ehoves me to make it abundantly ' > that my Government will not be i.eterred by any such futile and insensate acts from the discharge of its evident duty to take whatever measures may seem to it right and necessary for the protection of law-abiding citizens. MR PATEL’S RULING.

I have to announce the decisions reached by my Government in view of the situation created by the ruling given yesterday by the President of the Legislative Assembly. The practical effect of that ruling <• ; it stands—which it is not my purpose to discuss here—is to debar the Government from asking the Legislature to give it the additional powers of which if conceives itself to stand in need, and to make it impossible foi either Chamber of the Li-aislnture to record any decision on the Government’s proposals.

If the interpretation of rules by the President of either House gives rise, as now, to a situation in which the Govorment for grave reasons is unable to acquiesce, the only effective remedy is that early measures should he taken to secure by due authority such an amendment of the rules as may be necessary to prevent any recurrence in the future of a similar interruption in the. normal Legislative ..ocedure. /

The broad purpose of the amendment i'n the rules which we propose to seek will be to secure that the progress of legislation which it is within the power of the Indian Legislature to pass shall not be prevented by the President of either House, except in virtue of express powers conferred on him by the rules and Standing Orders. We cannot ignore the fact that the men behind the revolutionary movements against which the Bill is directed will not stay their hands because the enactment by the Indian Legislature of preventive legislation is postponed. ‘MUCH CANNOT BE DISCLOSED.’ With this danger in view, ami speaking with a full knowledge »f much that can necessarily not now be publicity disc'osed, I conceive that it has become imperative for tbe Government to obtain the powers proposed in the Public Safety Bill.

I have accordingly decided to avail myself of the authority conferred on the Governor-General under Section 1 2 of the Government of India Act. to issue an ordinance giving the Gov-ernor-General in Council the powers in question.