INDIAN FEDERATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 February 1935, Page 7

INDIAN FEDERATION

ATTITUDE OF PRINCES

STATEMENT BY SIR S. HOARE

[BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.]

(Recd. February 27, 1 p.m.) RUGBY, February 26.

The British Ministers specially concerned with the passage through Parliament of the Government of India Bill met last night, to examine advices from India, bearing on the attitude of the Princes, who, at a conference at Bombay, passed a. resolution, expressing the opinion that without a satisfactory modification of and alteration to the fundamental points, the Bill and thq instrument of accession could not be regarded as acceptable to the Indian States.

The resumption in the Commons, this afternoon, of consideration in the committee stage of the clause of the Bill dealing with the proclamation of a Federation of India, and the following clause, which defines the procedure for the accession of Indian States, will afford an opportunity for a Government statement on the subject. Government amendments to the clause concerning the instrument of accession, already tabled, will, it is believed, allay to a large extent the anxiety that has been aroused among the Princes.

It is emphasised, both at Bombay and at Westminster, that the Princes have no desire to upset the Federal scheme. The Bill is not yet in its final stages, and there will be an opportunity later to incorporate such further amendments, as may be considered necessary, and upon which the Government and the Princes will, it is expected, be able to reach an agreement. Sir Samuel Hoare made a statement in tho Commons, to-night, in regard to the resolution adopted in Bombay ysterday by the conference of Princes.

When the House resumed consideration of the Bill, in committee. Mr Winston Churchill, who has throughout vigorously opposed the measure, moved to report progress, in view of the Princes’ resolution, which he said created a new political situation, so far as the Bill’s future was concerned. Mr Churchill] said that the question of the accession of the Princes was the foundation of the whole policy. He expressed the view that the Federal scheme was dead.

Sir Samuel Hoare, who was warmly cheered, at cince rose to remove, he said, various- misunderstandings. It was not improbable that such misunderstandings should arise in dealing with such complex questions, when the principals werb 6000 miles apart. He refused to accept the suggestion that the Government had gone back on the agreements made with the representatives of the Princes. Ifby mischance, there had been a failure in drafting the Bill, to carry out those undertakings, he would see that they were fulfilled. He had no reason to suppose that the Princes had altered their conception of what an AllIndia Federation should be. Assuming that both the Princes-and themselves, wero still bent on the. setting up of an effective All-India Federation, he could say, after .a very careful examination, that there was no reason at all why these questions should not be adjusted between the Princes and themselves. ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS; LONDON, February 26. . The “Daily Mail” asserts that the Indian Princes’ resolution, that the Reform Bill is not. acceptable without satisfactory modification, has created a new situation in the British Government’s India policy. Those Ministers who are concerned with the passage of the India Bill have held an urgent meeting tp consider tho position.

The “Daily Mail” adds:. “The Princes’ attitude has greatly shocked the Cabinet. The Bill must now either be completely recast, or dropped.” On the contrary, “The Times’s’’ Bombay correspondent emphasises that the resolution of the Princes docs not mean that the Princes will not co-operate in a federal scheme. They merely adhere to the position that they hitherto have adopted, namely, that the fulfilment of certain conditions is essential to their vital interests. If these are fulfilled, the Princes are willing to join in a federation.

“The Times’s” political correspondent. says: “Most of the modifications which the Princes desire can effectively bo met by amendments during the committee stage of the Bill in Parliament.”