INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 December 1931, Page 5

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

BRITISH INTENTION. (United Press Association. —By Electrii Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, December 2. Speaking in the House of Commons debate in India, Mr MacDonald said that India’s chief outstanding problem was that of communal representation. He said: “I tried my best. Only one communal seat stood in the way of a complete agreement • but I failed, ihe (Government’s view ,is that it would not -be jus iafied in allowing - this failure to ptap.d in the way of .putting, into operation a constitution which, otheiwise, had generally been agreed upon.” If the Government said that they could do nothing failing communal representation being agreed upon, he said, they would be denounced by the whole of India on the ground that they never meant to carry out the pledges and promises made, and India could not be brought undei the ! Statute of Westminster without specific legislative provision. It could only be brought under that Statute by the same machinery which applied to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. , Mr Winston Churchill is moving an amendment to-morrow which will provide that nothing in the . Government’s policy will commit the- House of Commons to the establishment: .of a Dorn-, inions Constitution in India as defined by the Statute of Westminster, an that there must be safeguards for British trade in India from prejudicial discriminations. Mr Churchill will move also a provision to the effect that no extension of self-government m India shall impair the. British Parliament’s ultimate responsibility for peace, order and the good government of India.