SELF-GOVERNING INDIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 490, 25 March 1933, Page 4

SELF-GOVERNING INDIA

With the issue of the White Paper, setting out the British Government's proposals to reform the constitution of India, the march to self-government, begun at the Round Table Conference two years ago, enters the last stage before the experiment is actually tried; and it is not likely that the last stage will be long, or desirable that it should be. The proposals, which were given in bare summary in a cable message recently, are not final ; they are still to be considered by a Joint Select Committee of both Houses,( assisted Indian witnesses and consultants, according to Sir Samuel Hoare. But the report of this committee will become the substance of a measnre, covering the complete scheme of provincial and central government, which should be enacted before the summer is out. At the same time, certain preliminary steps are being taken in India. Special and suceessful efforts haye been made to strengthen the national finances, especially by way of loan conversions, which will disburden the new regime of maj turities during its first and proj bably most anxious years ; and at the opening of the Legislative Assembly on February 1 Lord Willingdon said that it was hoped during the session to introduce the Reserve Bank Bill, the passage of which is desirable, though not absolutely essential, before the reformed constitution operates. But even more important than technical .preparation j in Delhi i^ the readiness of the 1 Indian peoples to co-operate or i at least to acquiesce in the changes that are coming. On i this point the Viceroy expressj ed the encouraging belief that j Indian political opinion had dur- ! ing recent months developed favourably to the "living forces of constructive politics," soon to be tried and measured in what the "Economist" recently called "the greatest constitutional experiment of modern times." Its difficulties are not merely those which the work of the last two years has explored and combated, nowhere, perhaps, with perfect success. If the new constitution were supported by much fuller consent and agreement than it has received, or is likely to receive before it is given legislative effect, difficulties insuperable by the prevision of consti-tution-builders would still arise and would have to be overcome; and it is not very far from the truth to say that the constitution will have more than an abstract existence only as the problems of the future reveal its strength and flexibility, and the wisdom, courage, and forbearance of its administrators. The natufe of the problems which will be encountered is foreshadowed, of course, in many of the questions which have been long debated . The communal problem for example, had to be left in the end for Mr. MacDonald to decide, though he was ready to substitute for his settlement any that might later be agreed upon by the Indian communities. The Army, taxation, currency and exchange, and endless other subjects have proved difficult, not merely because the British Government required minimum safeguards but because interests so many and diverse had to be conciliated and reconciled; and nobody can say more than that the process has been carried, not to final success, but within hope and reach of it. "Since that is so, and it is as well to admit it frankly, it is not unnatural that the next and now near step in India should be feared and opposed by a considerable section of politicians in England. But the truth — as heavy with responsibility as it is clear — is that the step must be tal^en ; for the only altern'ative to reform, in presbnt ^circumstances, is reaction, the risks of which are im-

ineasurably greater than the greatest risks of advance.