The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1930. PRINCES AND RULERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1930. PRINCES AND RULERS.

Tim Indian. Kounu I'aoJe Lonterence non- proceeding m London, recalls incidents of other days. As a contemporary writer' remarks, nearly thirty years ago a body of troops representing the more important sections and branches of the military forces in India made a tour through the Empire. The contingent included a large number of men of high descent and noble lineage, and no one who saw them could fail to be impressed by their personal dignity, their perfect self-command and the curious blend of courtesy and aloofness with, which they met the advances or the com* frnenvs of Europeans, There are n\ number of Indian Princes in London now, and the easiest way to get some definite impression of these distinguished notables is to recall the Indian Oontingent as it was when it visited these shores. To visualise the Maharajah of Patiala, the Maharajah of Kashmir, the Gaekwar of Baroda, the Nawab of Bhopai, the Maharajah of Alwar, and the rest of them, we must think of men born to command, reared for the most part amid magnificent opulence and splendid luxury, and accustomed to think of themselves as a race entirely apart from the countless multitudes who make up 95 per cent of the population of India. If we think often enough and long enough on these lines, we may eventually get some faint idea of the importance of these royal personages in their own sphere of life, and we may thus come to realise the immense improbability that they will ever willingly accept any form of government or constitution that could conceivably reduce them to the common level of mankind. T t must be clearly understood that, tnough there aiie nearly feix hundred separate prinipalities among the native States, there is a far larger number of chiefs and rajahs in India who claim practically royal rank and monarchical power. What this means in the East is rather difficult to convey to the Western mind. Meredith Townshend, describing the native Princes as they were before British ascendancy was established, tells us that “each of these men had his own character and his own renown among his ’ countrymen, and each enjoyed a position such as is now unattainable in Europe, in which he was released from laws, could indulge his own fancies, had or good, and was fed every day and all day with the special flattery of Asia that willing submissiveness to mere volition which is so like adoration and which is to its recipients the nm«t intoxicating of delights.” All these princely chiefs had their courts and retinue, and all their favourites shared in the power and the luxurv of their lord. “The power was that ot life and death; the luxury included .possession of every woman that he desired ; the adultation was almost religious worship.” Now the strongest objection of the typical Oriental to Western ascendancy is that it terns always to deprive him of all these privileges :-“The .right to make volition executive” (in other words. to do rn ho pleasest, “the right to crush an enemy ami reward a fnencl. th right above all to lie free from that burden of laws, nmrnl duties. ~„Hl trosponsihiiities to otiws w.t<> which Europeans have loaded life.' To-day the Indian Princes, however civilised they may be externally, realise all these things, and some u them —for example, the Gaekwar ot Bavocta, with all Iris remarkable abil-

ity and his splendid record of service to the Empire—evidently elmfe urn!or tlie restrictions that the Western lia.j has imposed. Js it conceivable that men with such traditions behind them will ever willingly acquiesce in a political revolution that would mean lor them further Imitation and control at the hands of mere civilians? The attempt to answer this question d.seloses the real meaning and importance of the presence of the Native Princes at the Round Table Conference. The complexity of the subject under discussion renders any attempt at generalisation misleading, and so far the speeches have been rather a statement of the ease from different points of view than an attempt to reach any definite conclusion. There are, however, certain contributions to the debate that need special attention, and one of these is the despatch submitted to the Conference by the Indian Government. Lord Irwin, in this communication, formally accepts tlie suggestions put forward by the Simon Comm te ion for the abolition of the dyarchy, the substitution of responsible government in the provinces, and the establishment of an All-India Federation which will secure as speedily as possible “the maximum of autonomy” consistent with the interests of India regarded as a whole. But the Indian authorities are not prepared to see even this limited experiment in self-government carried through without certain conditions aiid i*estrictions. There must he. safeguards in respect to such matters as national defence, foreign relation*), financial obligations, internal security and the protection of minorities: and the general impression produced is that, on such terms, autonomy for India would be the fruit of a long and slow process of development. Tin's also is the inference that must he drawn from the sn-wch of Earl Peel, the first of the British delegates to address the Conference.