INDIA REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 277, 22 November 1934, Page 7

INDIA REFORM.

REPORT TABLED.

SWEEPING CHANGES.

Federated Self-Governing

Units. COMMITTEE'S FINDINGS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 1.30 p.m.) • RUGBY, November 21. The final stage of the process of consultation and inquiry, which has extended over six years, was reached with the publication of the report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform. It now remains for the Government and Parliament to consider the report, and a bill will be presented to Parliament. The joint committee's report is contained in a volume of 427 pages, and with it is published a volume of C 55 pages, reporting the proceedings of the committee and indicating the views of the individual members and the final voting on the report. A further volume of records will be published later. The joint committee's report advocates that an All-India Federation, built up of self-governing units,«,sliould be substituted for the present centralised Government. Eleven British Indian Provinces, two of them new ones, would be linked in the Federal system with the Indian States, who would enter the Federation by the voluntary-act of their rulers. No change is contemplated in the internal regime of the States, nor in the relationship between their rulers and the Crown outside the Federal sphere, but it is proposed that the provinces should manage their own affairs to a greater extent than at present. Matters for Federation. The great majority of departments of the Government which affect individuals from day to day, among them law and order, as well as certain items of revenue, for example, land taxes, would be the business of the provinces. The Federation would deal with matters such as currency and tariffs which concern India as a whole and questions of great importance. Each of the provinces would have an elected Legislative Assembly chosen by the direct vote of the electorate, which together would amount to about 14 per cent of the population, and in five provinces there would be an Upper as well as a Lower House. The Federation itself would have an Upper and Lower House composed of members indirectly elected by the provinces and representatives nominated by the States. In all Assemblies, Federal and Provincial, a quota of seats would be ensured for the various minorities. The report foresees that both at the Federal centre and in the provinces, governments would be rormed of Ministers responsible to their Legislatures in much the same sense in which the Cabinet in the United Kingdom is responsible to Parliament. Governor-General and Governors. The report further recommends that the Governor-General and Governors, who would be heads of the Federal Government and Provincial Governments respectively, should be guided by the advice of their Ministers, so long as they are satisfied that to do so does not conflict with certain special responsibilities imposed on them under the constitution. These special responsibilities include such duties as the prevention of a grave menace to peace and tranquillity, the safeguarding of financial stability and, in case' of the Governor-General, the safeguarding of financial stability and credit. The committee devotes special attention to the problem of terrorism, and makes new recommendations on the subject. The general political effect of the committee's proposals would thus be that in the Provinces, and with certain reservations at the Federal centre, there would be a system of parliamentary government, except when circumstances called for the exercise of the over-riding powers of the Governor-General or Governor. The report discusses in some detail a number of important questions which arise from the constitutional proposals. The committee advocates that recruitment in this country for the Indian Civil and Police Services should continue, and that service rights should be preserved. Steps are proposed to protect discipline in the. police and the independence of the judiciary from the effects of political influences.