INDIAN PROBLEMS

Evening Star, Issue 20586, 11 September 1930, Page 11

INDIAN PROBLEMS

ROUND-TABLE CONFERENCE DETAILS OF REPRESENTATION (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright. RUGBY, September 10. (Received September 11, at noon.) A list is issued of the Indian States’ representatives and the British Indian representatives invited by the Viceroy of Indan on behalf of His Majesty’s Government to attend the Indian Round-table Conference, which will meet in London in a' - few weeks’ time. It is possible that as a result of correspondence still proceeding other names may be added to the list as it at present stands. This now contains the names of sixteen representatives of the Indian States and .fifty representatives of British India. Among the former appear such well-known Indian rulers and statesmen as the Maharajas of Bikaner, Alwar, Patiala, and Nawanagor (the last-named being familiar to English sportsmen as “ Ranji,” the famous cricketer). The British Indian names are representatives of all shades of politics (with the exception of the Congress Party) and all Indian communities, including the martial races, Indian Christians, the Untouchables, the commercial community, and the European community, with’ three representatives of Burma and two Indian women representatives. Among the names are those of the Aga Khan, Mr Jinnah (a prominent Moslem politician, who also enjoys the confidences of Hindus), Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru (a well-known Liberal politician) Mr Sasti (a leading Hindu politician), and Sir Muhammad Shafi (a lending Moslem politician). The Round 1 -table Conference will be a gathering of immense importance. The suggestion that it should bo held was first made in a letter to the Prime Minister by Sir John Simon (chairman of the Indian Statutory Commission). Its wide scope was indicated by the Viceroy in his address to the Indian Legislature two months ago, when he said: “ His Majesty’s Government conceives of the conference not as a mere meeting for discussion and debate, but as a joint assembly of representatives of both countries, on whose agreement precise proposals to Parliament may be founded. The conference will thus enjoy the unfettered right of examining the whole problem in all its bearings, and His Majesty’s Government still hopes that Indians of all schools of thought—whatever the attitude that some have hitherto taken —will be ready to share in this constructive work. 1 see no reason why from a frank discussion on all sides a scheme might not emerge, for submission to Parliament which would confound the pessimism of those who would tell us that it is impossible for Great Britain and India, or for the various interests in India, to reach an agreement.” The names are not yet announced of the representatives from the Houses of Parliament. The Government has invited the leaders of two Opposition parties to nominate representatives to attend the conference from both Houses, but the Prime Minister has made it clear that while the presence at the conference of representatives ot the other parliamentary parties would, in the Government’s view, lead to the removal of difficulties and differences, and would facilitate the subsequent legislation, the Government could not throw off its constitutional responsibility, and must retain complete freedom regarding the proposals it will, as an outcome of the conference, subsequently lay before Parliament. By permission of the King-Emperor, the conference wilL.be hold in St. James’s Palace.