THE INDIAN REPORT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 306, 23 November 1934, Page 7

THE INDIAN REPORT.

TO BE GIVEN FULL EFFECT.

STATEMENT BY PAPER,

LONDON, Nov. 22. The Daily Telegraph’s political correspondent learns that the Government intends to give full effect to the report on India, which had a favourable reception in the House of Commons. Members hold that the report should be accepted by Parliament as expressing the considered opinion of a body which dealt with the question from a statesmanlike viewpoint.

It is believed that the extension of safeguards will tend to modify the opposition of members of the Right IVing and influence the decision of the Conservative Party at the meeting of the Central Council on December 4.

The Manchester Guardian says that th proposals for a federation of all India are not merely left unshaken in their rightness and necessity, but positively confirmed.

SALES OF REPORT.

HISTORIC DOCUMENT.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Nov. 21

The publication of the report on India marks the completion of what is considered the most exhaustive examination of proposed constitutional changes ever undertaken in the history of the British Empire, and probably of the whole world., Tlie document is being issued at the “uneconomic” price of Is in Britain, and eight annas, the equivalent of,ls, in India, in order to ensure the widest circulation, and there is little doubt that it will prove a “best seller.”

The constitutional changes with which the report deals have their roots deep in the history of Anglo-Indian relations. As far back as 1919 the Government of India Act, which authorised the Montague and Chelmsford reforms, provided that at the expiration of 10 years there should be an inquiry into the working of the changed system, with a view to determining whether Parliament should extend or modify the degree of responsible government that the Act laid down. That inquiry was undertaken within eight years when the Simon Commission, consisting of representatives of all parties, began its work. In the seven years since then, Indian constitutional reform has been a very live subject indeed, and the report marks an important stage in these years of intensive consultation and study.

ALLOCATION OF TIME

LONDON, Nov. 22,

The House of Commons, by 224 votes to 62, agreed to the Government taking up the whole of the time of the session.

RESPONSIBILITY DECLINED

MR LANSBURY’S COMMENT

Received November 23, 9.45 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 22. Mr G. Lansbury declares that the Labour Party cannot accept responsibility for the proposals for Indian reforms which he considers will not be passed by a House representing the whole nation but by a House in which one-third of the electors cannot join in telling India these arc the British nation’s proposals.