INDIAN COMMISSION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 26 November 1927, Page 9

INDIAN COMMISSION

• r GIVEN A FREE HAND. REPRESENTATION OF NATIVES. A DIFFICULT TASK. BY CABLE—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHT. Received 10.40 a.m. to-day. LONDON, Nov. 25. In the House of Lords, Lord Birkenhead, in moving the Indian Commission resolution, pointed out that Messrs Walsh and Attlee were appointed after a discussion with Mr Ramsay MacDonold. Lord Birkenhead emphasised tnat the purpose of the commission was to suomit an independent report to Parliament so it was not desirable to associate Inmans with the commission, but to rely on men without pre-commit-ments of any kind. It would have been necessary to appoint at least twenty commissioners in order to represent aii sections of Indian opinion. Viscount Reading strongly supported the commission and warned Indians of the danger of persisting in the boycott. LCrd Chelmtord similarly spoke, adding that there was no intention of shutting the Indians from full expression of their views. The resolution was carried without a division. —AP.A. and ‘ ‘ Sun. ’ ’ Received 12.30 p.m. to-day. LONDON, Nov. 25. In the (House of Commons, Lord ,\V interton, in moving the appointment of the Indian Commission, said that India would bear the cost, but Britain would contribute £20,000. In combating the suggestion that the commission should include representative Indians he offered the opinion that it would be fantastic to imagine that any two Indians could possibly represent the various political, religious and racial factors of the Indians. Accredited representatives of the Indian Legilsature would be given every opportunity of emphasising the case before the commission. No part of the Empire, before receiving partial or .complete self-Govern-nient ever had such un opportunity of directly influencing Parliament. Mr Ramsay MacDonald in supporting the motion on behalf of Labour, regretted the lack of consultation with representatives of Indians before the announcement of the commission. It might have been made clear that the commission would meet committees of the Indian Legislatures on a basis of a free exchange of views. The Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin said that the Government had deliberately left the commission a free hand to shape its own procedure in India though the British Parliament’s responsibility remained. l The Government associated itself with Mr MacDonald’s suggestion for the freest consultation with the sister Parliament. Mr Baldwin added: “It is an unprecedented path we are walking, but we are relying on the instinctive sense of justice deep in every Briton’s heart. Milton said: ‘When God wants a hard thing done Ho tells it to Ilis Englishmen.’ No harder thing has ever been told to Englishmen than this matter. We shall do it with courage, faith, strength and hope.”. The resolution was carried without a division.