CONTROL OF ARMY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 75, 19 November 1931, Page 5

CONTROL OF ARMY

(British Official Wireless)

PQSITION REVIEWED BY LORD READING AT CONFERENCE; GO VERN OR-GENERAL'S POWERS

RUGBY, Wednesday. The diseussion on what are called the reserved subjects, was c'ontinued to-day by the Federal Structure Committee of the Indian Round Table Conference, when the debate on the army and external affairs was resumed. This is to be followed later in the we'ek by a diseussion on commercial discrimination and finance. In to-day 's diseussion Lord Reading referred to a proppsal by Pandit Malaviya that the complete control of the army should be with the Indian Minister responsible to the Legislature, and the Governor-General's only right of intervention would be in an emergency by suspending the Con$titution. Lord Reading said this would place the Governor-General in a most awlcward predicament and be unworkable It was essential if responsibility at the centre was to be conferred upon the Indian Legislature (which he himself desired), that the army must be in the hands of the Governor-General, and the Minister must be responsible to him. It would be a mistake to assume that conditions were to be the same after they got a new Constitution as hitherto. They must get intb a different mentality. The control and responsibility for the army should remain with the Governor-General throughout, and he should have the

right of appointing an advisor who need npt be a member of the Cabinet in the strict sense, because he would be responsible to the Governor-Gen-eral, and not to the Legislature. Must be Gradual Lord Sankey drew attention to a paragraph in the last report which stated that there was general agreement that the assumption by India of all powers and responsibilities hitherto resting on Parliament could not be made at one step, and duri'ng the period of transition the Govern-or-General would be responsible and must be at liberty to give the powers necessary to implement his decisions. Mr. Gandhi said the Congress case was that there should be complete responsibility transferred to IndiaThat meant there should be complete control over the army and external affairs, but it also contemplated adjustments under which the whole army should be disbanded if it did not pass under India's control in its entirety. Disagreement With Gandhi. Lord Sankey said Mr. Gandhi was

asking them to take a terrible responsibility in urging the withdrawal of the army or its reduction to such size as to make it inconsistent with safety. It was a responsibility that no statesman who had a real regard .for the interests of India could justify himself in assuming. Mr. Sastri disassociated himself and some others of the Hindu delegates from the opinions expressed by Mr. Gandhi. He said it was with great gratification he had heard Lord Reading reaffirm his approval of responsibility at the centre. The amount of responsibility for which they asked, even with these two great subjects — the army and external affairs — excluded, was sufficient to afford an honourable and satisfaetory basis for a settlement.