GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT

Northern Advocate, 13 June 1936, Page 2

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT

T British Official Wireless.! (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, June 12. The House of Commons today debated a number of draft Orders-in-Ccuncil under the Government of India Act, which have the effect of bringing into operation the whole of the Act except Paid 2, relating to the Indian Federation. The Under-. Secretary for India, Mr R. A. Butler, moving approval of the orders, said that if provincial autonomy was to- be inaugurated on April 1, the’timetable which the Government had in mind was that the gen-; eral election should be held approximately eight months hence. Spokesmen cf the Labour Opposition and the Liberal Party, joined in wishing the . scheme the fullest measure of success. Sir Samuel Hoare, who, 1 as Secretary for India, (pilqfted the India Bill through the House of Commons, speaking for the first time as First Lord of the. Admiralty, added his blessing. ' He said the significance and satisfactory fact of the debate was that no one suggested that the initiation cf provincial autonomy should be delayed, although there had been criticism of some of the financial proposals.

As a result of the orders, provinces, several of which were of greater magnitude than some European countries, would have the opportunity, for the first time, of an extended scale of developing their own provincial life.

Mr Winston Churchill and Mr L. M. S. Amery, two of the principal critics of the Bill., also spoke. Mr Churchill said. ’ he and his friend would do nothing to obstruct the carrying out of the policy which Parliament approved, and Mr Amery expressed the wish that there might go from the House a message of good will to the new provinces and to India as a whole.