INDIAN HOME RULE

Northern Advocate, 20 December 1929, Page 7

INDIAN HOME RULE

FAVOURABLE ATTRIBUTES ROUND-TABLE CONFERENCE. NEW CHAPTER IN HISTORY. (United Press Association—By Electri* Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received 1.3 p.m.) RUGBY, December 19,

The Secretary for India, Mr Wedgwood Bonn, during a House of Commons debate last night, reiterated that the goal of British policy was achievement by India of dominion status, but he pointed out that India was already acquiring at a grooving rate the attributes of that status. He recalled several recent occasions on which an. Indian representative had attended international conferences and received a separate vote in the same way as jjjio other Dominions. He pointed out that a special Indian delegation attended the recent conference on dominion legislation and would so attend the coming Five-Power Naval Conference. The Government desired 'the prospective round-table conference to be summoned after presentation of the Simon report to be fully representative of political opinion in India, and that it should be called at the earliest possible moment. The conference would meet with a free hand, so that every section of opinion would j ■be able to come forward and express itself.

The conference was not intended to be merely a sop to Indian opinion, and he hoped when the time came for the conference it would bo found possible for the Indians to compose their differences, so that the Government would get the maximum of assistance and guidance in this matter. They were entering upon a new era. They were attempting to write what might be the greatest chapter in the history of the British Commonwealth, namely, the free and’voluntary association of a self-respecting nation in partnership with the British Commonwealth.