GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 9

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

OPERATION OF ACT

GOVERNORS' POWERS

LORD ZETLAND EXPLAINS

.: (British Official, Wireless.) , (Received May 8, 1.15 pan.)

.RUGBY, .May 7.

Before the House of Lords adjourned for the Whitsun recess, Lord Zetland (Secretary for India) made another ii iportant statement on the working of the Government of India Act. Alluding to the''-suggestion that a conversation between the, Viceroy (Lord Linljthgow).. : and. Mr...Gandhi, mjght dis'pps'e"'.' of the misunderstanding; which appears to have arisen,, the .Secretary for India said that that hope seemed to rest -on the assumption that a .short and simple formula could, be found as an alternative :to Mr.-Gandhi's.'own to express the manner in which.the Governors, would exercise their reserved powers, but, :if such formula were attainable, it would have.. been embodied'in the/Act." ■,■-■■ Lord Zetland said it appeared to him that in some quarters a great more had be^n read into that part of the Act which imposed certain obligations on a Governor than it contained, C Igress, for example, had declared that the past record and the present attitude of the British Government showed that .without special assurances a popular Ministry would be exposed to constant and irritating interference. •That idea- betrayed a very different picture of' the working of provincial autonomy from the one he had formed as a member,both of the Round Table Conferences, and of the Joint Select Committee. There was no idea of the : field of Government being, divided into two parts iii which the Governor and the Ministry operated separately, with the risk of a clash between them. The essence of the new Constitution was that the initiative and responiibility for the whole of provincial Government; in thought and in form, which had rested in the Governor, had passed to the Ministry and it would be the Governor's duty to help his Ministers in every way he could by his political experiences or his administrative knowledge. RESERVED POWERS. The reserved powers, of which so much'was now being made, would not normally be in operation at all and, if they ever came into question, it would be wrong to' assume that the Governor would at once be in open opposition' to the Ministry. Just as Ministers ;could count on .the assistance ofthe Goyernor in their difficulties, it was natural $to assume, ...if the spirit of the Constitution were observed, in addition to its letter, that the Governor could rely on receiving the sympathetic consideration of Ministers for his difficulties. If the: relations of the Governor and his Ministers were those of partners in .a common enterprise, as they should be, there could be no possible question of a Governor interCering constantly and embarrassingly in the responsibilities and work of Ministers. ■.■/•■' FREEDOM OF MINISTRIES. Lord, Zetland repeated categorically that his Majesty's Government had no intention of countenancing the use of special powers for other than the purposes for which Parliament intended. It was certainly not the intention that Governors, by a narrow and legalistic interpretation of their responsibilities, should-trench upon-the wide powers which if was the purpose of Parliament to place in the hands of Ministries for use 'in furtherance 'of their programmes.. _ In .conclusion, the Secretary for India declared his devout hope that those who had hesitated to accept office from the mistaken impression that they would be unduly hampered in their task would be reassured and encouraged by the object lesson of the actual workings of the Constitution in their midst.