Policy Toward India

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 815, 8 November 1929, Page 9

Policy Toward India

DEBATE IN THE COMMONS “No Crisis,” Says Baldwin ELUCIDATION BECAME NECESSARY British Official Wireless Received 11.50 a.m. RUGBY, Thursday. IN the House of Commons today, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, the Conservative Leader, opened the debate on the British policy in India with a statement regarding - his attitude toward the issue of the declaration concerning Dcm.uion status for India. Sir John Simon and the Liberal Leader, Mr. Lloyd George, also spoke, and after the Secretary for India had replied a motion for adjournment was withdrawn.

Mr. Baldwin said that on Friday, September 20, the Secretary for India, Mr. Arthur Henderson, arrived at Pau, to see him charged with a letter from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister asked him (Mr. Baldwin) to concur in the issue of a statement concerning Dominion status, in the event of the Simon Commission being consulted and agreeing, and the consent of all the parties being obtained. He replied that so far as he was concerned, he would concur; but he could not speak for his colleagues or his party. On October 23, he met his colleagues, and learned for -the first time that the Simon Commission had not approved the publication of Lord Irwin’s Note. Clearly, a new situation had arisen, and therefore he called together the ex-Secretary of State for India, Lord Birkenhead, and Lord Salisbury, and it was at once decided that he should write to the Prime Minister pointing out that in all the circumstances he could not agree to the publication of the Note.

It was not a true statement that the ‘‘shadow Cabinet” of the Conservative Party insisted that he should formally repudiate his personal pledge, and required him to write to the Prime Minister withdrawing his approval and support of Indian Home Rule.

What actually happened was that as soon as he knew the Simon Commission had refused to take any responsibility for the publication of Lord Irwin’s letter, lie met his colleagues and told them the whole circumstances of his correspondence with the NO CRISIS EXISTS Speaking on the general subject of the pronouncement of the Viceroy of India, Mr. Baldwin said it was absurd to talk of a crisis. There was no crisis, and there had been none. The situation had only demanded elucidation. With regard to India’s future, Mr. Baldwin said: “Let us never forget that the whole of the great Indian peninsula had been for centuries the scene of invasions and struggles, and perhaps the best thing we have ever done, if we could do no more, is that for a space we have given her internal peace—we have given her justice and rule of law. I pray that those three things, peace, justice, and rule of law may accompany India and ourselves throughout every stage of the long and arduous journey which is before us now. As best, it is a difficult journey—a journey that will have to be taken through a tangle of creeds and castes of ancient interests and immemorial hate. “We have promised India in our declaration responsible Government. All the parties in this country are agreed that that pledge shall be honoured, and it will form the most resxmnsible task of the Commission, of which Sir John Simon is chairman, to point out what steps at this moment it is most desirable to take.” “Could there be any _doubt whatever in any quarter of the House,” added Mr. Baldwin, “that the position of India, with full responsible Government in Empire, when it was attained, in whatever form it might take so far as the internal Government of India was concerned, must be one of equality with the other seats of Empire ? Mr. Baldwin concluded: “No Conservative Party with which I am connected will fail In sympathy and endeavour, to help in our time and to the utmost extent of our ability, the

solution of the greatest political problem which is before us today. We cannot hope to live to see it realised.”

“Our work must be done in faith, so that when, perhaps after long generations to come, there are men who will be putting the coping stones on this foundation, the" happily will not forget those who toiled with faith among the foundations.”

Mr. Lloyd George, the Liberal Leader, said he was a member of the Government that introduced reforms in India, and that he presided over the Cabinet that not only sanctioned but framed the declarations in reference to the future self-Government of India. There was no question so far as the Liberals were concerned of going back one single inch from those declarations. Those declarations were considered carefully, not only by the British Cabinet. They were considered during the war at the Imperial Cabinet, where there were representatives of every Dominion in the British Empire, including India. He explained the nature of the pledge which was given to India, and why full partnership was not conceded immediately. It was owing purely to practical difficulties. DIFFICULTIES CITED The first difficulty was that never in the whole history of India had India, or any part of it, ever enjoyed the slightest measure of democratic self-government until 1919; secondly, that 95 per cent, of the population was illiterate; and thirdly, there were as many different races, nationalities, and languages as there were in the whole of Europe. AII these facts had to be taken into account. The Imperial War Cabinet in 1917, with the Prime Ministers of all the Dominions present, decided that there should be accorded to the public of India a considerable measure of self-government, limited, restricted, experimental, and tentative; but it promised—and this was where • the pledge came in—gradually, if the experiment was successful, to extend it until ultimately India enjoyed full partnership in the Empire, on equal terms with our great Dominions. But the Cabinet made it clear that the ultimate l goal could only be reached by stages, and that the limiting and number of those stages must be determined carefully from time to time by the success which attended the experiment at each stage. Mr. Lloyd George regretted that while the report of the Simon Commission was being awaited, the declaration was issued with the consent of the Government, which had created an impression in India that it was intended without delay to confer full Dominion status on India. SECRETARY REPLIES Mr. Wedgwood Benn, Secretary for India, said the Government was not taking a new step in policy, but was taking, in effect, administrative action, and was declaring and interpreting in unmistakable terms the existing policy. The declaration was a restatement and interpretation of the Montague policy. Lord Irwin’s statement meant what it said, no less and no more. The Montague policy stood as a cardinal article of faith in the British policy toward India. The first reason for the Government’s taking the action it did was that it was advised to do so by the Viceroy. He would like to absolve the Viceroy, because he came to England as an ambassador of peace and had gone back to India as a peacemaker. There had grown up m recent years a doubt in India about the British policy. The Viceroy said that for the removal of that doubt it was necessary to issue a clear declaration of the existing policy. The Viceroy also wanted, if it were possible, to get a good atmosphere, which would be better secured if they could clear up those doubts before the report of the Statutory Commission was issued. It was because those reasons appeared to the Government good and sound that it took the course it had taken. Mr. Lloyd George had asked whether there had been any change of policy. Mr. Wedgwood Benn said that, using the word in its widest sense, there had been . a change. A new spirit had been introduced. An effort had been made to make the Indian people realise the position they occupied in the British Commonwealth, and to give them an assurance of equality. The second change that the Government had made was far more important, namely, in regard to the conference. The conference was to be fully representative of the different parties and interests in India, and in the Indian States. WORK OF COMMISSION

Sir John Simon, chairman of the Statutory Commission, said the commission had endeavoured to discharge its duties and would go on discharging them. The* commission was absolutely determined to do nothing which could be construed or misconstrued as the presentation of an interim report. The functions of the commission could neither be enlarged nor diminished by any declaration or statement made by anybody whatever. ’Hence, he earnestly asked Parliament to leave the commission to continue its work undisturbed, without Parliamentary conflict. The members of the commission had an undivided and sincere desire to serve not only India, not only Britain, but both together. One outcome of the events of the last ten days was to make everybody realise

that the future constitutional progress of India was one of the most complicated, as well as one of the most important questions In the whole world.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, said the declaration of the Viceroy was required, because after 1919 propaganda had been started asking the Indian people to believe that the British Government had departed from its policy. A declaration was necessary in order that a better atmosphere and more confidence should be established, pending the publication'of the report of the Commission.

The debate ended, a motion for aa adjournment being withdrawn.