FEDERATING INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 149, 27 June 1930, Page 10

FEDERATING INDIA

SIR JOHN EXPLAINS

SCOPE FOR FUTURE GROWTH

British Official Wireless. (Beeeived 27th June, 11 a.m.) BUGBY, 26th June.

Ill;a broadcast speech last night Sir John Simon emphasised that the Indian Statutory Commission's recommendations were those-, not of one individual, but of seven, representing all parts and drawn from both Houses of Parliament. The proposals were not a bundle of vague expressions. They constituted a detailed and connected scheme dealing with every aspect of Indian Government. They were based on important principles, of which the first was that there should be no more Commissions.' They represented a sehenio designed to meet the present practical necessities, while leaving room for later adjustments and developments. The proposals for Provincial Government and.the Commission's treatment of Central Executive wero illustrations of a method of providing now for the possibility of future growth. Indian Party comment had entirely missed this point. Parliament could not possibly abandon all its responsibility for the Central Government of India at this stage,. but the extent to which this responsibility could be handed over would depend on tho future. THREE ADVANTAGES. Tho proposed method of reconstituting the Central Legislature had three great advantages. It provided at the centre a body of reasonable sizo that would be really representative, of the numer-' bus inhabitants of vast areas.' : , , ' Secondly, the plan of representing the provinces rather than' individual States in the Federal Assembly permitted of the adoption of a scheme which would givo much-needed assistance for provincial exchequers and enable provincial Ministers to go forward with plans for improving education, public health and other services in provinces now starved for want of money. ; ! Thirdly, the plan gave the best prospect of associating Indiain States more closely with the affairs of India as a whole. : Turning to some concrete matters, Sir John Simon paid high tribute to the police forco which, however, tended to be regarded as the agent of an alien bureaucracy, although in fact the whole neighbourhood would without, it fall into utter auarehy. Only by-tho abolition of anarchy and by making the Government as a, whole responsible for the administration of all departments with safeguards against abuse could the cause of this distrust be removed. Sir John then dealt with plans for the protection of minorities and proceeded to discuss them. The first would be the Oetobor Confersnce, to which various bodies of opinion in India would be invited for a free expression of opinion before tho proposals were laid before Parliament. SATISFYING THE TEST. lie belioved that the recommendations would satisfy all tests which must be applied to any Constitution before its ultimate adoption. The lesson to be learned from the analogy of the Dominions was that in overy case the ultimate form of Dominion Government had been the result o£ natural growth. They had arisen not because an Act of Parliament said so, but because in the life of a growing organism a stage had been reached when it had beon found that this was the way to express the responsibilities of citizenship.