THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1929. THE STATUS OF INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1929. THE STATUS OF INDIA.

If the statement issued by Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, embodies fully what is in the mind of the Government, then the frequent rumours current for the past month or two have done its policy grave injustice. The procedure contemplated and the ultimate goal, as described by Lord Irwin, could have been adopted by the recent Conservative Government without doing violence to any part of its own expressed policy. The alarmists who imagined India being handed over without reservations to the Indian politician and the Native States placed in exactly the same relation to the new authority as they have hitherto been to the Crown, should be reassured. There is, indeed, in the substance of the statement, a soundness which should be welcomed by everybody interested in India: probably it will be by everybody except the left wing of the Labour Party and the Indian politicians. The Labour extremists have been so long habituated to talking about the brutalities of Imperialism, using India as a shining example, that they can be expected to revolt violently against this display of common sense by their own party. .The Indian politicians, the noisy section, will denounce the policy because they are so accustomed to denouncing everything done or suggested by Britain that it has become almost mechanical. The rumours that the Labour Government was to declare for the immediate granting of Dominion status, and to collaborate with the Indian extremists in establishing it, injudiciously broadcast lately, will not have prepared the politicians to accept equably what is now outlined by Lord Irwin. What is foretold now falls far-short of what was predicted then. Apart from being sound policy, it goes as far as a party which does not command a majority in the House of Commons could go, even if the Labour Government had wished to go further. There is no evidence that it did.

The intention expressed in the Viceroy's statement is riot claimed to be new. This feature deserves to be noted particularly. It purports to be, and is, in fact, no more than interpretation of a policy dating back to 1917. That eventual Dominion status for India must be the result of the reforms now in being, provided they proceed with no unforeseen happening to disturb their course, is seldom disputed. Even those who express most doubt about the wisdom of the policy embarked upon usually admit that it cannot now be abandoned, and there must inevitably be development to the stage of self-government. What Lord Irwin really does is to admit the continuity of policy under the different Governments since 1017 and to show that there will be no radical departure from it by this Government. No proposals for the future of India have yet been formulated. Procedure already laid down, tentatively in part, is to be followed. First the Statutory Commission, headed by Sir John Simon, is to complete its report, which is to be accompanied by another report from the Indian Central Committee. Then representatives of British India and of the Indian States will be invited to meet representatives of the British Government, presumably the Secretary of State for India and officials of the India Office. By this process it is hoped to draw up proposals, acceptable to all concerned, for submission to Parliament. Dominion status may be the eventual goal, but there is no certainty that the granting of it forthwith will be the proposal to result from the procedure thus laid down. In fact the tone of Lord Irwin's message to India does not suggest that such an advance is to be expected at once. The Simon Commission was certainly not committed beforehand to recommending anything of the kind. Its duty, defined in 1919, was to examine the working of the reforms then instituted with a view to determining what further instalment of selfgovernment, if any, could be recommended after ten years. It is not bound to suggest any advance, and is certainly not committed to advocating an immediate resort to what is described as the ultimate aim of the whole system of reforms.

The association of the Indian States with the policy it is hoped to devise is the important feature of the new pronouncement. Sir John Simon has emphasised the need for considering the future status of that vast Extent of India which is not included in British India. This follows as a natural sequel of the report from the Butler committee, submitted to the British Government last April. The committee, headed by Sir Harcourt Butler, was appointed to report upon the existing relations between Britain and the Indian States, to inquire into the financial and economic, relations between the States and British India, and to make recommendations for the "more satisfactory adjustment" of the latter relations. These subjects are interlocked. If British India is given self-government, it will necessarily have full fiscal powers, including the right to impose customs duties. That right, indeed, exists now, and has been exercised in some degree. This has already become a grievance with some of the Native States. They are affected by the duties, yet receive none of the customs revenue. The other question is regarded, however, as more vital. It has generally been assumed by those Indian politicians who most vehemently demand full self-govern-ment that once it is granted British India will immediately assume all the rights and obligations Great Britain now bears toward the Indian States. That theory has not been accepted by the States. The Butler committee drew attention, in very plain terms, to the fears entertained by the rulers of the Indian States that their, relation-

ship to the Crown might be transferred "to a new Government in British India responsible £o an Indian Legislature." It expressed equally strongly the opinion that this should not be done unless the rulers agreed to it. The association of the Indian States with the proceedings to follow when the Simon Commission has reported shows that at last a vital feature of the situation, too long ignored, has been recognised. This alone is a guarantee that though full Dominion status remains the ultimate goal for India, it is not to be granted by a stroke of the pen though there is a Labour Government in Great Britain.