ADEN’S ADMINISTRATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 238, 5 September 1933, Page 6

ADEN’S ADMINISTRATION.

The transfer of the administration of Aden from the Government of India to Whitehall arises from the proposed constitutional changes in India. The subject has engaged the attention of both Governments. In a statement to the House of Commons two months ago the Secretary of State for India (Sir Samuel Hoare) gave the following cogent reasons which “suggested that Aden should not be '■linked to India” under the new Constitution : It is an area geographically remote from India; it would not naturally fit into the new Federation; it is already to some extent under Imperial control; and it is inseparable in practice from the Aden Pi’otectorate which has alx*eady passed wholly out of Indian control. The Protectorate, which is distinct from the settlement, covei’s a considerable portion of the hinterland from Aden itself, this territory having been acquired years ago to provide for the growing population which in 1931 was returned at 46,638. As in 1911 the figure was 46,165 there has been but an irupei-cept-ible growth in the intervening decades. From time immemorial the peninsula has been noted. as a trade centre. It was occupied by the Romans in the first century A.D., and till "the discovery of the trade route to India via the Cape Asiatic produce for the Occident passed through its marts. Thereafter its trade decayed to reach its nadir about 1838 when Aden was a village of 600 people. Subsequently, increasing impoi'tance was paid to the Red Sea route, and in 1839 the British, seized with its value as a mercantile and naval station, took the peninsula. The opening l of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave Aden an impetus that regained moi’fe than its old impoi’tance. The settlement itself is surrounded by what has been well said to be indescribably barren, cinder-like rocks. The transfer, which it is anticipated will not encoxxnter opposition in England, will mean to the Colonial estimates an additional £150,000 annually, and though Indians may oppose it on sexitimental and revenue grounds the actxial Indian taxpayer, it is said, will welcome relief from a naval and military bui-den. Formerly Aden was under control of the Bombay Presidency, but last year it was. given the status of a province in the Indian Empire. “The best defence of the proposed change,” the London Times says, “is that it will relieve the future. Government of India of what is essentially a contribution to the upkeep of a distant Imperial fortress.”