India—A Problem

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 9

India —A Problem

PARTIES INVITED TO HELP Round-Table Conference DELICATE TASK FOR GOVERNMENT British Official Wireless Received 12.5 p.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. THE British Government proposes to invite the other two Parliamentary parties to appoint representatives at the forthcoming India Conference. This announcement was made in both Houses this afternoon. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons, recalled that the round-table conference was first suggested in a letter addressed to him last October by the chairman of the Indian Statutory Commission, Sir John Simon.'

This letter, Mr. MacDonald said, stated that in such a conference “the Government would meet both representatives of Britain and India and of the Indian States.” The Government had been considering how, without changing the character of the conference as indicated in that letter, it could be used to give an opportunity to representatives of India and the British Parliament of exchanging and discussing views on the problem with which they were dealing, and for an understanding of each other. The Government was impressed by the advantages which would result from the presence in the conference of representatives of other Parliamentary parties and he believed the difficulties and differences would be removed and that the legislation to be undertaken after this would be facilitated. For this reason the Government proposed to invite the leaders of the other two parties to nominate representatives from both Houses to attend the conference, but he must make it clear that the Government could not throw off its constitutional responsibility and must claim complete freedom regarding the proposals which they would subsequently lay before Parliament as the outcome of the conference to advance the purpose announced by the Viceroy after consultation with the Government MALCONTENTS’ POSITION Sir Austen Chamberlain (Conservative) asked if it was proposed to seclude from the Indian representation anyone who had signed any report or had taken part in the civil distrubance. Was there, he asked, to be one rule for the Indian and another rule for the British representatives? The Prime Minister replied that so far as the Indian Central Committee was concerned he understood that this body would not be represented, but they were at present in communication with the Viceroy, and he could not say more at present. The Prime Minister added: “I have been perfectly candid. We have considered it and we are now engaged in negotiations about it. But at present I think the House would be well advised not to adopt the course suggested.” In a further reply to Mr. E. Thurtle (Labour), who asked the Government had considered the effect upon Indian Nationalist opinion of admitting the opposition parties to a round-table conference, the Prime Minister replied in the affirmative. He added it was perfectly obvious

that it was for the good of India, as well as of Britain, that the discussions at the conference should be very full and representative, and that the Government should have an opportun ity of listening to most thorough thrashing out of ail the problems that are, and would have to be, dealt with by legislation. He was very little interested in the proportional representation of the conference. What was needed was rep resentation that would be efficient in bringing ideas to the conference and in examining the questions before it. Replying to Mr. Stanley Baldwin, Mr. MacDonald said he was at present exchanging views regarding the number of representatives from two other parties to be invited to the conference, but he thought three or four from each would be a convenient num ber and he would like their names to be announced if possible before Parliament rose at the end of the week. FULL STATUS Asked by Mr. Lloyd George whether such nominees would have equal status with the other delegates and wjiether he had reached any conclusion regarding the representation of the Statutory Commission, seeing that it was no ordinary commission appointed by the Government but had been appointed under the authority of Parliament, the Prime Minister replied that nominees of the Opposition parties would be full delegates. The question of representation of the Statutory Commission had received from the Government a great deal of anxious consideration, and at the moment it was inclined to say it would be a great mistake to have members of the Commission as representative delegates at the conference. Sir Austen Chamberlain (Con.) said it would be clearly undesirable that any member of the Statutory Commission should be included in either of the party delegations, but was it not also clear that the conference ought to have the assistance of a representative of the commission anti could not the Government, with the consent of all parties, ask the chairman of the Commission to act? The Prime Minister replied that he held the view at the moment that it would be a grievous mistake to do this, as there was a strong reason why it was undesirable. It was reported recently that the Opposition parties in Parliament were prepared to combine to defeat the Government if ail parties were not invited to send representatives to the conference on India.