THE ARMY IN INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20792, 7 February 1931, Page 10

THE ARMY IN INDIA.

A survey of the Conservative attitude toward Indian self-government states uncompromisingly the conditions and safeguards the party believes should accompany the granting of it. A prominent point, tersely stated, is that "our command of the army must be clear and undisputed.'' This touches on one of the most difficult problems the Statutory Commission had to handle. It did not attempt to evade the issue in so far as its complications went, but it concluded without any very clear-cut plan. The commission felt that because of the peculiar dangers and difficulties of frontier defence, and because the army is always in reserve as a safeguard for internal tranquillity, the presence of a British element was virtually indispensable. This raised constitutional difficulties. It was undesirable, the report stated, for many practical reasons, and contrary to precedent, that an army containing a British element recruited by the British authorities, should be handed over to the control of an Indian Legislature. After discussion of other difficulties, including staffing and finance, the commission reached the conclusion that the only circumstances in which India could bear full responsibility for the armed forces of the country were that the process of federation should have become an accomplished fact, and prove to be working smoothly. In the meantime, and especially so long as there is any real likelihood of the military forces being called upon to help in the maintenance of civil order, in tho view of the commission the army niust remain under outside control exercised naturally through the Viceroy. Tho report adds: "The position would, of course, bo entirely altered once tho ultimate constitutional stage is reached and the British Parliament resigns finally its mantle of responsibility in favour of the Indian legislatures." In other words, the Simon Commission suggests that control of the army and responsibility for external defence will arrive only with the last stages of evolution toward complete selfgovernment. In demanding therefore that command of the army must remain with Britain under present conditions, tho Conservative party is largely in accord with the findings of the Statutory Commission.