RULE IN INDIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21454, 30 March 1933, Page 9

RULE IN INDIA

DEBATE IN COMMONS "TREMENDOUS EVENT" (Received March 29, 9.35 p.m.) British Wireless RUGBY, March 28 The House of Commons to-day rijpumed the debate on tho Government's motion asking for authority to set up a joint select committee of the Lords and Commons on the constitutional reform of India before Parliament is asked to make a decision. Sir Robert Home emphasised tho vital importance of safeguards, as they were .giving a system of Parliamentary democracy to 350,000,000 people at a time when many countries wero being deprived of Parliamentary democracy and resorting to dictatorships. lie criticised from this viewpoint many features of the White Paper. Sir John Simon said it was perfectly plain that the Government of India Act, under which the statutory commission was appointed, with its preamble, was deliberately conceived, and that Britain was, as a matter of policy, pledged to a fair pursuit of the policy presented to the House by the late Lord Montagu, when ho was Secretary for India. Methods and conditions wero open for consideration, but the goal was beyond question. He wanted to see tho prospect of this new development of a Greater India much more thoroughly investigated, so that thero would bo an opportunity for the great Indian princes to play a larger part than before. Sir John Simon described the burden which lay on the shoulders of the present Parliament as one of the mo6t tremendous events in history.