FUTURE OF INDIA

Evening Star, Issue 20321, 1 November 1929, Page 8

FUTURE OF INDIA

QUESTION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT EXTENSION OF STATUTORY COMMISSION’S INQUIRY SIR JOHN SIMON’S PROPOSAL. (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, October 31, (Received November 1, at noon.) Lord Irwin (Viceroy of India) has made a statement, which is published to-day, regarding the extension of the scope of the inquiry of the Indian Statutory Commission to include relations between British India and the Indian States. He says Sir John Simon, Chairman of the Statutory Commission, has pointed out in correspondence with the Prime Minister that he and his colleagues have been greatly impressed in considering the future constitutional development of India with the importance of bearing in mind tho relations which may develop between British India and the Indian States, and that in Sir John Simon’s judgment it is essential that the methods whereby this future relationship between these two constituent parts of Greater India may be adjusted should bo fully examined. Sir John Simon has suggested that after the Statutory Commission and the Indian Central Committee have made their reports the British Government shall meet the representatives both of British India and the Indian States for the purpose of seeking the greatest possible measure of agreement for the final proposals which the British Government will later submit to Parliament.

Lord Irwin proceeds: “With these views, I understand, His Majesty’s Government is in complete accord. The goal of the British policy was stated, in a declaration on August, 1917, to be that of providing for the gradual development of self-governing institutions wjth a view to progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire. My own instrument of instructions from the King and Emperor expressly states that it is His Majesty’s will and pleasure that the plans laid by Parliament in 1919 should be the means whereby British India ni»y attain its due place among his dominions. Ministers of the Crown, moreover, have more than once publicly declared that it is the desire of the British Government that India should, in the fullness of time, take her place in the Empire in equal partnership with the dominions ; but in view of the doubts which have, been expressed both in Great Britain and India regarding the interpretation to be placed on the intentions of the British Government in enacting the statute of 1919 .1 am authorised, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, to state clearly that in its judgment it is implicit in the declaration of 1917 that the natural issuo of India’s constitutional progress, as there contemplated, is the attainment of dominion status. In full realisation of this policy it is evidently important that the Indian States should be afforded an opportunity of finding their place, and even if we cannot at present exactly foresee on what lines this development may be shaped, it is from every point of view desirable that w hatever can be done, should be done to ensure that any action taken now is not inconsistent with the attainment of the ultimate purpose which those in British India or the States, who look to some unity of all of India, have in view. His Majesty’s Government considers that both these projects—namely, that of finding the best approach to the British Indian side of the problem, and, secondly, of ensuring that in this process the wider question of closer relations in the future between the two parts of Great India is not overlooked —can best be achieved by the adoption of a procedure such as Sir John Simon lias outlined. When, therefore, the commission and the Indian Central Committee have submitted their reports and these have been published, and when His. Majesty’s Government has been able, in consultation with the Government of India, to consider these matters in the light of all material then available, they will propose to invite. representatives of the different parties and interests in British India and representatives of the Indian States to meet them separately or together, as the circumstances may demand, for the purpose of a conference and a discussion in regard both to British Indian and All-Indian problems. It will be their earnest hope that by this means it may subsequently prove possible, on these grave issues,.to submit proposals to Parliament which may command a wide measure of general assent.