THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1930. THE FUTURE OF INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20725, 19 November 1930, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1930. THE FUTURE OF INDIA.

At the first business session of the Round-table Conference on India there has been helpfully taken very full advantage of the promise of freedom of discussion. By putting a very liberal interpretation on the first recommendation of a committee appointed to report on procedure, Mr. MacUonald, as chairman, has invited a preliminary survey of the position. The invitation has been accepted, and in the speeches reported to-day there is encouragement to hope that the two things for which Mr. Mac Donald has asked —willingness to co-operate and determination to succeed—will lead to agreement on a practicable scheme. These speeches, made by leading men of diverse interests in India, being severally representative of British India, tho Native States and "the younger generation," evince both a friendliness to Britain and a frankness in stating demands; and theso are prc-requisites of any serviceable discussion. As the con-

fcrencc proceeds to detailed examination of the problem, there will probably be met points on which sharp cleavage will be inevitable, but there is apparent at the outset a general recognition of the responsibility to share the exploratory task. For one thing, while 110 attempt has been made to cloak the desire for a largo measure of independence, mention of necessary safeguards, having British as well as Indian interests in mind, has been freely made. There has been manifest agreement 011 some crucial things: the Viceroy's remaining as the representative of the King, his retention of control of the British forces and his employment of State troops when necessary, and his exercise of certain disciplinary authority. Loyalty to the Empire has been reassuringly emphasised, and any future constitution to be devised has been envisaged as one entailing a period of transition. Though a somewhat brusque warning has been given to British traders that they must not any continuance of advantage over Indian merchants, all idea of expropriation has been repudiated. On the basis of these declarations discussion should proceed profitably. Together with them there has been manifested a determination to have the question of a constitution and that of status discussed together. They are separable in thought: the first relates to the method by which the whole of India may come into possession, eventually, of a unified system of government. This goes beyond the scope of the instalment of constitutional reform instituted in 1919, when British India alone was considered and no plan was suggested of change for the States ruled by Indian princes. Now, following a recommendation of the Simon Commission, there is envisaged an all-India federation, the Native States becoming voluntary members. The second question is concerned with the standing to be enjoyed within the British commonwealth, bv the country thus unified, whether the unification be achieved early or late. But, while from a theoretical standpoint these questions may be discussed apart, practical considerations necessitate now

their discussion as one. If any considerable measure of self-govern-ment be given to British India alone, the Native States might find themselves at a disadvantage created by the military and financial rights delegated to this new authority, geographically shutting them off from the seaboard and capable of hampering their freedom and development. It is all to the good that, on specified conditions, the Indian princes at the conference have expressed their readiness to enter a federated India. This agreement, although its details await round-table discussion, leaves the way clear for an examination of the question of status as the most crucial. As things are, British India is governed from Whitehall, and a federated India, inclusive of the States long and proudly ruled by Indian princes, could not very well be so governed. Hence, the raising of the question of status has vitally affected the whole outlook. It is a matter of documentary fact that Britain herself raised it in a wellremembered passage of thoMontaguChelmsford Report, and in the intervening years there has grown in India, quite apart from the propaganda of extremists bent on severance from the Empire, a vigorous desire, for freedom from what one of the British Indian delegates now calls the-sovereignty of the British Parliament but describes as that of a few civil servants in England and India. The time is ripe for ventilation of the demand prompted by this desire. Even its most thoroughgoing expression is to be welcomed, ! but very noteworthy is the acknow- j lodgment now made that what is somewhat vaguely described as Dominion status lias not been attained anywhere in the Empire at one stride, Such an acknowledgment promises an openness of mind as to the means to he adopted to give India some form of legislature of its own. It is evident that it will need to be a legislature in some way representative of the Native States as well as the British provinces, and in the finding of the way the conference may encounter some awkward obstacles. Nevertheless, to judge by the speeches of some leading delegates, the outlook for jhe conference is sufficiently promising to give ground for hope that a scheme may be evolved worthy of a sympathetic welcome by the British Parliament.