INDIAN REFORMS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22414, 30 May 1938, Page 9

INDIAN REFORMS

Congress Ministry’s Achievement REVIEW OF PROGRESS BY LORD ZETLAND (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received May 29, 8.35 p.m.) RUGBY, May 28. The Marquess of Zetland (Secretary of State for India and Burma), was the principal guest at the annual Bombay dinner, held in London. Lord Zetland took the opportunity to make an important statement on the working of Indian reforms and the setting up of an All India Federation.

Speaking of the magnitude of the changes made ’in the constitutional field, Lord Zetland said that Britain could look back with considerable satisfaction on the gredt changes which had taken place with so little dislocation of the machinery of government. A review of the work of the Congress Party Ministry in Bombay during its first six months showed a record of immense legislative and administrative activity. He could find in it no suggestion of any kind of undue interference by the Governor. This record was sufficient justification for the claim he made last summer that the Congress Ministers would be free to pursue their own policy in internal administration.

Britain now had the task of preparing in the constitutional sphere a dwelling place for the new cqnsciousness of nationhood stirring among the peoples of India. She had to bring beneath the dome of a single political edifice the new democracies of British India and the ancient autocracies of the Indian states. In view o- current criticisms he hoped that room might be found within the framework of the India Act of U.lo to accommodate the reasonable requirements of both. He could understand the views oi those who would represent the provinces in the federation as a result ox ah election, that some element ot popular choice as distinct from nomination should enter into the 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 l'e 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, would discuss with His Majesty’s Government the changes in federal structure embodied in the act. So far as he was aware there was no foundation for any such suggestion. The Federal provisions of the act were the outcome of 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 the federation had even 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 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.