Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1931 THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 8 January 1931, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1931 THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

WHEREAS the British Government prevented the Indian Conference from having the benefit of Sir John Simon s advice during its deliberations, and though it did its best to scrap the exhaustive and remarkably useful Report made by the Statutory Commission of which Sir John Simon was the head, nevertheless it is now sufficiently clear that the Conference has been largely guided by the Commission’s Report ui coming to many of its conclusions. For instance, the British Government appeared to wish to extend Dominion status immediately to British India, and leave it to work out its political salvation as best it could. The Conference, however, shows a decided intention to follow the Simon Report in its recommendation to set up a federal form of central government which shall depend on nomination by provincial legislatures, which shall be elected by popular franchise. As to the difficult question of what degree of responsibility should be conferred on the central government the Report said:

While we are prepared to recommend a considerable advance towards self-government, and while we believe that a sense of responsibility can only be taught by making men responsible for the effects of their own actions, we desire to secure that experience is not bought too dearly. There must be in India a power which can step in and save the situation before it is too late. There must be provided, as far as may be. safeguards to insure the maintenance of vital services. . . . The Gover-nor-General or the Governor, as the case may be, must be armed with full and ample powers. We desire to give the fullest scope for self-government, but. if there is a breakdown, then an alternative authority must operate unhampered. . - .

When we turn to the recent enunciation of Lord Reading, representing the Liberal Party at the Conference we find him closely corroborating the spirit and recommendations of the Simon Report, from which we have quoted. He said: Tlie Liberal section of the British delegation—(present at the Conference) —approaches the subject of responsibility of the Federal Executive and the Federal Legislature with a genuine desire to give effect, as far as it legitimately can, to the views of the British Indian delegation, provided that adequate safeguards and reservations are introduced, enabling the Government of India to be carried on with reasonable security and protection to all interests, and that the new Constitution will be fairly workable. . . It is idle to refuse to recognise that at this stage there must be some form of dual Government. Questions like defence, army, foreign relations, international obligations, and obligations already undertaken, must be regarded as outside the region of controversy and as reserved subjects. The Viceroy or Gov-ernor-General must be responsible to some authority. We cannot have an

autocrat at the head. . . Lord Reading does not appear to have gone into the question of the appointment of tlie Viceroy or Governor-Gene-ral, and of the Governors of Provinces, neither does he seem to have decided to whom the Viceroy shall be responsible, but the general tenor of his remarks shows a close agreement with the Simon Report. Remarkable as the analogy is between the two, it is still more remarkable that the British Government is reported to accept Lord Reading’s “principle of responsibility as outlined on behalf of the Liberal section” of the British delegation attending the Conference. So that the framers of the Simon Report seem to have won a considerable victory, though they were not allowed to speak at the Conference. This agreement of the British Government and the Liberal Party upon this salient feature of India’s new Constitution is most important, because it is the British House, of Commons which has to frame and promulgate that Constitution, and the Liberal and Labour Parties, acting together, dominate the House. The British Conservatives’ opinion, as voiced by Sir Samuel Iloare, is dubious of the attempt to graft British political methods and institutions on to British India, and it is to be expected that the majority of the Peers will endorse that opinion. So when the British Parliament gets down to the actual business of framing the new Constitution of India, it seems likely that there will be a wholesome restraint put upon any tendency to precipitation in endorsing in their entirety the findings of the Round-Table Conference, whether or no those findings are in the best interest of good government in India. In any case it seems clear that the paramountcy of the Viceroy .will be retained; that he will be responsible either to the British Parliament or to the King; that Dominion status will not be granted immediately to British India; and that in its broad outlines the Simon Report will materially influence the measure of self-government which will be extended to India.