THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928. A FEDERATED INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19953, 23 May 1928, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928. A FEDERATED INDIA.

The Simon Commission, back again • ft in England after a preliminary visit • / to India, is presumably at work already on its task.of considering how the reformed Government works in that country, and of estimating what advance can be made on the system established in 1919.* The South Indian Liberal Federation, it is announced, will place before it a scheme for a central Government of the federal type, on the Australian model, with full Dominion status for India herself. At the outset this seems an advance from the proclaimed boycott of the commission, and the disposition to welcome its appearance with riots, shown- when it was visiting India. A constructive proposal, a definite scheme—this is what seems to be offered by the Liberal Federation. However sympathetically it is desired to receive the proposal, it must be considered from two points for its value to be found. First there is the body which sponsors it, and how far it represents Indian opinion, then the conditions to which this scheme would have to be applied. Neither the South Indian nor any other Liberal Federation can claim to speak for that section of the Indian people which has any political consciousness. The active politicians, those who sit in the Assemblies, control the vernacular press, and generally direct public life, do not adopt the name Liberal. They belong to the Swaraj, or Home Rule, Party, and accept no other label. The Liberals may support the Swaraj movement, but the Swaraj Party has no affinity with Liberal Federations. An unsympathetic critic of Indian affairs, after drawing a clear distinction between the Swarajist Congress Party and the Liberals, described the second-named as "composed of malcontents of various kinds, chiefly Hindus, and including many of the money-lending classes." Even if this summing up is rejected as prejudiced, there is no escaping that the Liberal Federation is one of those minorities which, so far, have been alone in showing any tendency to cooperate with the Simon Commission. The Liberal Federation, in making its proposal, is, in effect, stealing the thunder of the Swarajist Congress Party. The avowed nationalist has long demanded provincial autonomy and Dominion status. This would necessarily mean some form of federation. Otherwise Dominion status to all the provinces would be involved, and with it would go the last prospect of any Indian homogeneity. The reforms now working contain the germ of the federal idea. There are provincial legislatures in which the system known as "dyarchy" obtains. It involves, as its name infers, a sharing of control. Certain "transferred departments" are handed over to Ministers responsible to and removable by the votes of the provincial legislatures. The others are administered, as they have been heretofore, by the officials of British India centralised at Delhi. The motive was to give the provinces experience in managing their own affairs, to enable them to learn selfgovernment under a system of decentralisation. There would be no point in this if provincial autonomy as practised under a federal system were not the ultimate end. The only point of difficulty in the Liberal Federation's demand is that it should be adopted by the Simon Commission as the next instalment in the reforms, to become effective after 1929. It would be a bold step forward, and its possibility must be weighed in the light of certain established facts. The Indian provinces are not necessarily united with a sense of localised community of interests. Indian society is organised in sections that are not affected by provincial boundaries. Differences of race, religion and language extend far. The problem of the whole is also the problem of the parts so far as it is made up of communal distinctions. There is also to be considered the relation of the Native States to the provinces in any federal system. The Princes of India in the main tend to rest on their treaty rights with Britain herself, to deny any practical bond with British India. If a federal system were complete, these States would have to come in as provinces. Their system of government is largely autocratic, often a benevolent autocracy, but in no sense akin to the representative system on which provincial autonomy is usually demanded. Autonomy for them would be no difficulty. Most of them have it already. Their participation in the central Government under a federal system would be the problem. Yet it would not be federation if they transferred to an all-Indian Government their present treaty relations with Britain —supposing the Princes were prepared to do this. Besides, they could reasonably demand a voice in the central Government since many of its acts would affect them directly. The control of the Indian Legislature over customs duties alone would establish the concern of the Native States. The position, therefore, stands that while the demand of the Liberal Federation is the logical end of the reforms now working in India, its realisation would be a grave and difficult step forward. The Simon Commission must examine the possibility irrespective of its advocacy by any section ; but the fact that Indian voices demand it is no proof that India is ripe for provincial autonomy and Dominion statuß as the next step in development.

PROGRESS TOWARD PEACE. <m' ' With commendable speed, America has made acknowledgment of the British reply to the proposal of a multilateral treaty for the elimination of war as an instrument of national policy. Much remains to be discussed concerning the modifications suggested by Britain and France and the procedure to be adopted to give documentary effect to the agreement it is hoped will be reached. But a very notable eagerness to achieve something worth while is marking the negotiations, and it is doubtful whether, at any moment since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the close of the war, there has been so general an international readiness to act in concert. , The Washington naval agreement and the Locarno Pact present the only accomplishments with which that now in prospect can be compared. Of course, no finality has yet been reached ; nor is there even preliminary unanimity. Even after diplomatic interchanges of understanding have taken place, Parliamentary ratifications will be necessary to give cogency to the understanding. But the initial steps, marked by considerable difficulty, have been safely taken. Of particular importance is the American action recognising the several parts of the British Empire as individual participants in the treaty. They are being invited to become "original parties" to it. This follows the analogy of the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations, and therefore sets the projected multilateral treaty among the most noteworthy international agreements of modern days.