INDIAN DISORDERS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 7

INDIAN DISORDERS

WARNING TO CONGRESS ATTITUDE OF BRITAIN NO PRESSURE INTENDED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 20 The Under-Secretary of State for India, Lieutenant-Colonel A. J. Muirhead, was asked in the House of Commons to-day whether, as the paramount Power in India was bound by treaty to protect the Indian States from external aggression and internal disorder menacing their security and integrity, he would represent to the Government of India that the Indian National Congress should be warned to cease aggressive agitation in the Indian States. The Under-Secretarv replied that the Marquess of Zetland, Secretary of State for India, was satisfied that the attitude of the paramount Power in regard to agitation in the Indian States was known to all quarters In India. It was that the paramount Power would not obstruct proposals for constitutional advances initiated by the rulers. However, the British Government had no intention of bringing any form of pressure to bear upon them to initiate constitutional changes. It rested with the rulers themselves to decide what form of government they should adopt in the diverse conditions of the Indian States. The obligations of the paramount Power to the Indian States extended to protecting the rulers against violence and disorder and to advising and assisting the rulers in remedying such legitimate grievances of their subjects as might be found to exist.