GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 13 June 1936, Page 7

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT

EARLY OPERATION OF MEASURE (British Official Wireless) (Received. 13th June. 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, 12th June. The House of Commons to-day debated a number of draft Orders-in-Council under the Government of India Act which will have the effect of bringing into operation the whole of the Act except Part II relating to Indian Federation. The Under-Secretary for India, Mr R. A. Butler, in moving aprpoval of the orders, said if provincial autonomy was to be inaugurated on Ist April the time table which the Government had in mind was that general elections should be held approximately eight months’ hence. The spokesmen of the Labour Opposition and the Liberal Party joined in wishing the scheme the fullest measure of success, and Sir Samuel Hoare who,, as Secretary for India, piloted the Government of India Bill through the House. of Commons, speaking- for the first time as First Lord of the Admiralty, added his blessing. He said a significant and satisfactory fact in the debate was that no one suggested that the initiation of provincial autonomy' should be delayed, although there had been criticism cf- 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 an opportunity for the first time on an extended scale of developing their own provincial life.

Mr Winston Churchill (C.) and Mr L. C. Amery (C.), the two principal critics of the Bill, also speke. Mr Churchill said that he and his friends 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 goodwill to the new provinces and to India as a whole.