RULE IN INDIA

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20511, 30 May 1938, Page 5

RULE IN INDIA

LORD ZETLAND'S STATEMENT .MAGNITUDE OF THE CHANGES (Official Wireless) RUGBY, May 28 The Secretary of State for India, the Marquess of Zetland, was the principal guest at the annual Bombay dinner held in London. He took the opportunity to make an important statement on the working of the reforms and the position regarding the setting up of the All-India Federation. Speaking of the magnitude of the' changes that had been made in the constitutional field. Lord Zetland said they could look back with considerable satisfaction on these great change's having taken .place with bo little dislocation of the machinery of government. A review of the work of the Congress Ministry in Bombay during its first six months showed a record of immense legislative and administrative! activity. He* could find in it no suggeston of any kind of undue interference by the Governor. This record was sufficient justification for the claim he made last summer that Ministers would he free to pursue their own policy in internal administration. New Democracies They now had the task of preparing in the constitutional sphere a dwell-ing-fclace for the new consciousness of nationhood stirring the peoples of India. They had to bring beneath the dome of a single political edifice the' new domocracies of British India and the ancient autocracies of the Indian States. In view of current criticisms, Lord Zetland said he hoped room might be found within the framework of the Act of 1935 to accommodate the reasonable requirments of both. He could understand the views of those who would represent the provinces in the federation as the result of the election that some element of popular choice, as distinct from nomination, should enter into selection of the States’ representatives. That was for the’ Princes themselves to decide. There was nothing in the Act to prevent it. nor would the paramount power be found standing in the way of any prince who sought to temper the rigid autocracy of bygone days with a more liberal system. Suggestions had been made that the Viceroy, during his coming leave, was to discuss with the British Government the changes in the federal structure embodied in the Act. So far as Lord Zetland was aware, there was no foundation for any such suggestion. Federal Provisions The federal provisions of the Act were the outcome of a prolonged and exhaustive examination and discussion, and in his view there was not the least likelihood of the Government or Parliament being willing to consider, before even the federation had come into operation, any alteration in its structure. Both the Viceroy and he' were ready at all times to listen to comments on these provisions whether by the Princes or by those who spoke for British India. ‘ But within the framework of the Act there was ample scope for providing the peoples of India with a degree’ of political cohesion which they had never before possessed.