APPEAL TO INDIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23224, 23 June 1937, Page 9

APPEAL TO INDIA

VICEROY'S MESSAGE THE NEW CONSTITUTION CO-OPERATION IN WORKING (United Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) SIMLA. June 21. (Received June 22, at 5.5 p.m.) The Viceroy (Lord Linlithgow) broadcast an introduction to a message which he is publishing tomorrow on the subject of the constitutional position. He expressed the opinion that the difficulties are due to misapprehensions, and he supplied an authoritative exposition of the issue. He hopes thereby to assist the people of India to arrive at a right conclusion.

Lord Linlithgow, in his broadcast, made an eloquent appeal for confidence in the intentions embodied in the Government of India Act, and emphasised the extreme inexpediency of interrupting, even temporarily, the rhythm and momentum of the continuous and progressive political reform of which India was the scene. He declared that the greatest triumph of Britain in India would be to help in the establishment of those principles of. representation and responsible government which were a special contribution towards the secular progress of mankind.

EXPLANATION OF POWERS

The Viceroy's message sympathetically appeals to Congress to co-operate in the working of the Constitution, to enable India "to take the shortest road to fuller political life, which so many of you greatly desire." The Viceroy lengthily discusses the technicalities of the position of the Governors, including the resignation or dismissal of Ministers, in the event of a Governor using his mandatory powers. He emphasises that no Governor is lightly going to destroy, for the sake of a legalistic interpretation of the Act, what might be the fruitful co-operation of years. The Viceroy welcomes the Mahatma Gandhi's suggestion that the severance of the partnership between a Governor and his Minister is only essential in an event of major importance, and adds: " If the deadlock continues and parliamentary government is suspended in a number of provinces, it might be beyond anyone's power to reverse the circumstances which must then supervene."