INDIAN FEDERATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21247, 29 July 1932, Page 9

INDIAN FEDERATION

POSITION OF STATES FINANCIAL PROBLEMS REPORT OF COMMITTEE By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright British "Wireless. RUGBY, July 27 With the issue this evening of tho report of the Indian States' Inquiry Com-, mittee, the work of all three committees appointed after the Round-Tablo Conference has been completed. The next important stage in the Indian situation will be the announcement promised during the present summer of the Government's' decision on the communal question. The States' Inquiry Committee reached unanimous conclusions after a tour of 10,(XX) miles among the Indian States, during which personal discussions were held with 88 rulers or their Ministers, as well as with deputations representing the whole of the classes of the smaller States. The purpose of the committee was to explore the specific financial problems of each State, bearing in mind the principle that the ideal system would be to arrive at an arrangement by which Federal units would contribute on a uniform basis to the Federal resources. The work involved the examination of the existing rights of each State under its particular treaty with the Crown, an examination in detail of the contributions which certain States make, and the value represented by the territories which some States have ceded to the Crown in return for guarantees of a military nature. The committee prepared a balancesheet for each State, debiting each with the amounts in respect of certain immunities enjoyed and crediting it with its contribution to the Crown which eventually passes into the revenues of the Government of India. The object of the committee has been to suggest terms which could be fairly reasonably accepted by the States and British India as a basis of mutual and voluntary association. Such association must be achieved with each individually, as only in a very general sense is it possible to speak of the common interests of the States as contrasted with the interests of British India. The recommendations of the committee are thus intended to provide material for a settlement with each State on its entry into a federation on the basis of the balance-sheet, taking into account'the individual credits and debits. The committee, however, points out that by the very fact Of entry into a federation the States would be making a contribution ' which is not to be weighed in golden scales."