INDIA CONFERENCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 35, 21 November 1930, Page 5

INDIA CONFERENCE

DISCUSSIONS CONTINUED.

DELEGATES EXPRESS VIEWS

QUESTION OF THE CONSTITUTION

(United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, November 20. The general discussion was continued at tiie Indian Conference. The Najvab of Bhopal urged that the Federation should concern itself solely in matters of common interest to he defined by mutual consent. There should be no question of the status ol the iStates being subordinated to that of the rest of India.' Mr Joslii, speaking on behalf of the workers of India, expressed the hope that the Constitution yvould contain a declaration tiiat the fundamental rights of the workers be founded on universal suffrage. The Shah Nawaz, one of tlie two women in the Conference, expressed the hope that women would be given an adequate share in the administration. Sir Nirza Ismail, Prime Minister of Mysore, asked for a Constitution providing full autonomy in the provinces with responsibility at the centre, subject to traditional -safeguards. Sir Ramaswami Aiyar, an Indian Liberal, said that tlie only way to procure peace and contentment was to provide a Constitution which the restless spirits in India would feel worth belonging to. Lord Reading (a former Y iceroy) said that it fully accepted that the natural issue of the 1917 declaration was for Dominion status. There could be no difference of opinion regarding their goal. They would do everything possible in reaching it, but it was idle at the moment to say there could be anything like equality of status with “the Dominions because there were questions such as the Army and foreign affairs that must be discussed. Ong striking thing was that in the Government of India’s report, the views differed little from, the conclusion reached by the Statutory Commission.—British Official Wireless.