India and the Empire

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 809, 1 November 1929, Page 9

India and the Empire

DOMINION STATUS THE GOAL Question of Native States GRAVE ISSUES FOR PARLIAMENT Received 11.4 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. THE India Office has published the correspondence between . J°Hn Simon, as head of the Indian Statutory Commission, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. Sir John points out that, whatever be its final report, it will be vase to take account of the relations between British India and the Indian States.

Ife suggests that when the commission’s work has been completed the Government should confer with the representatives of British India and the native States, in order to secure the greatest possible measure of agreement. Mr. MacDonald, in his reply, said he had first consulted the leaders of the other political parties, who would accept his suggestion. The British Government would therefore summon the conference which Sir John had suggested. VICEROY'S STATEMENT A British Official Wireless message says that Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, has made a statement which is published in India today, regarding the extension of the scope of inquiry of the Indian Statutory Commission, to include the relations between British India and Indian States. He says that Sir John Simon, chairman of the Statutory Commission, has pointed out in his correspondence with the Prime Minister that he and his colleagues have been greatly impressed, in considering the future constitutional development of India, with the importance of bearing in mind the relations which may develop between British India and the Indian States, and that in Sir John’s judgment it is essential that methods whereby this future relationship between these two constituent parts of Greater India may be adjusted should be fully examined. Sir John Simon has suggested that after the Statutory Commission and the Indian Central Committee have made their reports, the British Government shall meet representatives both of British India and the Indian States, for the purpose of seeking the greatest possible measure of agreement for the final proposals which the British Government will later submit to Parliament. GOAL OF BRITISH POLICY Lord Irwin proceeds: “With these

views, I understand that liis Majesty’s Government is in complete accord. The goal of the British policy was stated in the declaration of August, 1917, to be that of providing for gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible Government in India as an integral part of the British Empire. “My own instrument of instructions from the King and Emperor expressly states that it is his Majesty’s will and pleasure that the plans laid by Parliament in 1919 should be the means whereby’ British India may attain its due place among his Dominions. EQUAL WITH DOMINIONS “Ministers of the Crown, moreover, have more than once publicly declared it to be the desire of the British Government that India should, in the fullness of time, take her place in the Empire in equal partnership with the Dominions, but in view of the doubts which have been expressed, both in Great Britain ancT India, regarding the interpretation to be placed on the -intentions of the British Government in enacting tlite Statute of 1919, I am authorised on behalf of his Majesty’s Government to state clearly that in its judgment it is implicit in the declaration of 1917 that the natural issue of India’s constitutional progress, as there contemplated, is the attainment of Dominion status. “In full realisation of this policy, it is evidently important that the Indian States should be afforded an opportunity of finding their place, and even if we cannot at present exactly foresee on what lines this development may be shaped, it is from every point of view desirable that whatever can be done should be done to ensure that the action taken now is not inconsistent with the attainment of the ultimate purpose which those in British India or States, who look to some unity of all India, have in view. “His Majesty’s Government considers that both these projects, namely, that of finding the best approach to the British Indian side of the problem, and, secondly, of ensuring that in this process the wider question of closer relations in future between the two parts of Greater India is not overlooked, can best be achieved by the adoption of a procedure such as Sir John Simon has outlined. CONFERENCE TO BE CALLED “When, therefore, the Commission and the Indian Central Committee have submitted their reports, and these have been published, and when his Majesty’s Government lias been able, in consultation with the Government of India, to consider these matters in the light of all the material then available, they will propose to invite representatives of the different parties and interest in British India, and representatives of the Indian States, to meet them separately or together, as the circumstances may demand, for the purpose of conference and discussion, in regard both to British India and all Indian problems. It will be the Government’s earnest hope that, by this means, it may subsequently prove possible on these grave issues to submit proposals to Parliament which may command a wide measure of general assent.”