INDIAN CONSTITUTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 2, 2 December 1931, Page 7

INDIAN CONSTITUTION

ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE ENDS

PLAN OF ALL-INDIA FEDERATION

PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENT

(United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

(British Official Wireless.)

Received December 2, 11.18 a.m

RUGBY, Dec. 1

The end of the Indian Round Table Conference came with the Prime Minister’s speech declaring the policy of the Government.

Mr MacDonald said that he regarded the discussions and personal contact as gf the highest value. They had raised the problem of India’s constitutional reform far above mere technicalities of constitution-making. They had Avon confidence in, and respect for, each other, which had made the task one of helpful co-operation.' By co-operation alone could they succeed.

ALL-INDIA FEDERATION.

task of settling it by agreement, but had failed. PROVINCIAL SCHEME.

ONLY HOPEFUL SOLUTION. GOVERNMENT’S BELIEF. (British Official Wireless.) ■ Received December 2, 11.18 a.m. RUGBY, Dec. 1. Mr Ramsay MacDonald stated Avith regard to India that at the beginning of the year he made a declaration of policy. Ho detailed the salient sentences of that declaration, namely, that His Majesty’s Government Avas of the opinion that responsibility for the Government of India should bo placed upon Legislatures, Central and Provincial, with such provisions as were necessary to guarantee, during the transition period, the observance of certain obligations and to meet other special circumstances, and also with sucli guarantees as are required by the minorities to protect their political liberties and rights. The January declaration also stated that statutory safeguards Avere necessary for meeting the needs of the transitional period. It would be the Government’s prime concern to see that tho reser\’ed powers were so framed and exercised as not to prejudice the advance of India through the new Constitution to full responsibility for her own Government. The principle of responsibility was to be subject to the qualification that in the existing circumstances defence and external affairs must be reserved to the Governor-General, and that regarding finance such conditions must apply as would ensure the fulfilment of obligations incurred on tho authority of the Secretary of State and the maintenance unimpaired of tho financial stability and credit of India. Finally, it was their view, that the GovernorGeneral be empoAvered to fulfil his responsibility for seeming the constitutional rights of the minorities and ultimately maintaining the tranquility of the State. BRITAIN’S PLAN.

They Avould soon find their endeavours to proceed with the plans held up if they could not present them with a settlement acceptable to all parties. In that event the Government would be compelled to apply the provincial scheme, for they Avere determined that even this disability should not be permitted to be a bar to progress. It would not, however, be a satisfactory Avay of dealing with the problem. He, therefore, begged them to meet together in India and reach an agreement.

The GoA’ernment, he said, intended to go ahead. They had brought the business down to specific problems requiring intimate consideration first of all by bodies which are really committees and not unwieldy conferences, and they must set up machinery to do such work. COMMITTEES TO WORK IN INDIA.

Mr MacDonald said that the next step in the development of India’s future Constitution Avould be through Committees working in India. A Avorking committee of the Round Table Conference was to be nominated to remain in being in India, and the Governors Avere to keep in effective touch Avitli it through the Viceroy. Three other committees, whose appointment the conference recommended, Avould bo set up as soon as possible to deal Avith financial and franchise problems under the chairmanship of distinguished public men from Britain. Mr MacDonald declared that great strides had been made at the conferences a year ago and now, Avhich had enabled them to mobilise the goodwill of India and. Britain for a solution of the great historical problems of India. The Government, he assured tjiem, Avould strive unceasingly to secure a successful conclusion of. their mutual labours.

The Prime Minister was thanked by Gandhi, Sir Abdul Quayum, and the Nawab of Bhopal.

These in broad outline were features of the new Constitution contemplated by the late Government. The present Government fully accepted that statement as representing its own policy. In particular, they desired to reaffirm their belief in an All-India Federation as offering the only hopeful solution of India’s constitutional problem. They intended to pursue this plan unswervingly and to do their utmost to surmount the difficulties in the way of its realisation.

CABINET DISCUSSION

GANDHI WANTS INDEPENDENCE

LONDON, Dec. 1. - Cabinet sat for three hours until midnight discussing the Hound Table Conference problems. When Mr I»amsay MacDonald resumed the presidency of the conference, Gandhi said that the Congress represented a spirit of rebellion or whatever name they liked to call it. “I want independence,” said Gandhi. “I do not want to break the bond between Britain and India, but the bond must be based on freedom. I do not want to revive civil disobedience. I want to convert the truce into a lasting peace, but there is no solution while foreign rule wants the Princes to become constitutional rulers like King George.” Gandhi here appealed to the British Government not to be blind to the change in India, or to the writing on the wall.

In order to give this declaration the fullest authority, the statement he was now making would be circulated to-day as a White Paper, and the Government .would ask Parliament - to approve of it this week. STATES’ RELATIONSHIP. There were still differences of opinion on certain points. He regretted the absence of a settlement on the question of safeguarding the minorities, and that it had not yet been possible for the States to settle their relationship within the Federation. These facts could not be ignored, and he wanted to get things done. Mr MacDonald proceeded to discuss a practical programme for the advancement of these common aims. Hie principle of responsible Federal Government, subject to certain reservations, remained unchaaiged. Governor’s Provinces of the future were to be responsibly-governed units, enjoying the greatest possible measure of freedom from outside interference. They contemplated that the North-West Provinces should be constituted a Governor’s Province of the same status as the others, with due regard to frontier requirements, and that it should constitute a separate Province if the means of financing it could be found. It had been pressed upon the Government that the .surest route to Federation would be to get these and other measures in train forthwith and not delay the assumption of full responsibilitv by the Provinces. They must realise that the communal deadlock stood in the way of progress whether for the Provinces or the Centre. The conference had twice essayed the

Mr Sastri appealed to Gandhi not to return to the arid field of non-co-operation. “Your duty is with us,” he said.

Mr MacDonald, at 2.15 a.m., describing Mr Sastri’s appeal as irresistible, announced that the conference would adjourn until 11.30 a.m.

ANARCHIST MOVEMENT.

TROOPS AND POLICE IN CHITTAGONG.

Deceived December 2, 8.50 a.m. CALCUTTA, Dec. 1. To assist the police in their task of cleaning up the district, troops as well as armed police have been transferred to Chittagong, which was the sceno of the great armoury raid eighteen months ago, and which has since been the seat of the Anarchist movement.

It is hoped that the general public, who have been terrorised into secret tolerance of the Anarchist activities, will co-operate.