WILL INVESIGATE INDIAN HOME RULE

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 6454, 11 November 1927, Page 7

WILL INVESIGATE INDIAN HOME RULE

Commission Set Up; Composition Announced

INQUIRY TO EXTEND TWO YEARS (British Official Wireless.) BUG-BY, Nov. 8. The Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, announced in the House of Commons the composition of the Statutory Commission which will inquire into the working of the system of Government, the growth of education, and the development of representative institutions in India. The Commission will consist of Sir John Simon, the well known King’s Counsel, and a leading Liberal, who will bo chairman; Lord Burnham, proprietor of the Daily Telegraph; Lord Strathcona, the Hon. Edward Cadogan, and Colonel Lane Fox, Conservative members of Parliament; Mr. Stephen Walsh, Secretary for War in the late Labour Government, and Major Attlee, Labour member of Parliament. Extensive Functions. Mr. Baldwin said the Government was of opinion that the task of the Commission 'in taking evidence would be facilitated if the Indian Legislature appointed a committee which might laj before the Commission any matters for examination. This committee might remain in being for consultation with the Commission. Tho Government also suggested' that a similar procedure be adopted in the Provincial Legislature. The vast areas to bo covered made it desirable that the task of taking evidence on purely administrative questions should bo undertaken by some other authority, which would bo in closest touch with the Commission. ' When tho Commission had reported and its report had been examined by tho Government of India and His Ma jesty’s Government, it would be the duty of tho latter to present the Commission’s proposals to Parliament. It was not, however, tho intention of tho Government to ask Parliament to adopt the proposals without giving tho fullest opportunity for Indian opinions >f tho various schools to bo expressed. To this end, it was intended to invito Parliament to refer these proposals to the consideration of a Joint Committee of both Houses. PERSONNEL APPROVED; CHAIRMAN OUTSTANDING. RUGBY, Nov, 9, Members of tho Statutory Commission on Indian reform expect that their duties will occupy them for nearly two years. The intention is to conduct a preliminary inquiry in India, and they will leave London early next year, returning, after a few months, to England, and proceeding again to India in order to'devoto the winter mouths to taking evidence. Commenting on the personnel of tho Commission, the chairman of which is Sir John Simon, the distinguished lawyer and Liberal leader, Tho Times says—- “ Not only from the point of view of reassuring the people of India from the outset that Commission will bo guided by those progressive ideas which are associated with Liberalism, but because it has brought a brain of singular clarity to bear upou an extraordinarily complicated problem tho Government has been both wise in appointing a man not in their own ranks for tho chairmanship and fortunate in clisting Sir John Simon.

The broad verdict on the personnel of tho Commission is that thb chairman, as if right, is the outstanding figure, that his intclligential predominance makes the Commission definitely liberal in character, and that for the rest it consists of men of industry, commonsense, and good temper, sufficiently varied in their political views to be representative of Parliament and sufficiently free from egoists to work in harmony.” BRITISH MINISTER FOR WAR TO MAKE VISIT TO INDIA. RUGBY, Nov. 8. Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Secretary for War, stated that his visit to India was in no sense an official inspection of British troops, for whom the Indian Government was solely responsible. There were many important questions of finance, organization, and administration, for example, the future progress of mechanisation and the future position of various units of tho British Army, which depended for a successful solution upon a common policy agreed with the Indian authorities. He hoped from his visit to India and tho discussion with various authorities to bo able to make some progress in dealing with those and similar matters.