INDIAN PROPOSALS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18594, 3 January 1935, Page 11

INDIAN PROPOSALS

PRUDENT PROGRESS

BRITAIN’S POLICY

(Received January 2, 3.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 2. A series of broadcast talks .was opened to-day by Sir Samuel Hoare upon the Indian proposals.

He maintained that the Government’s Indian policy was one of prudent progress, supported by authority and experience, while nobody either in Britain or India had produced any workable alternative. Criticism in India must not be taken to mean that the Indians would obstruct reform. The final test of the Government’s policy was whether it was for the better government of India. He certainly did not suggest that selfgovernment was in itself preferable to good government. That would be entirely inconsistent with the record of British rule in India. However, he did maintain that tho old system of personal government—great as had been its achievements on behalf of the Indian masses —was no longer sufficient. He added:

“We have reached the point when the welfare of the people depends upon co-operation between the Governments and Indian political elements, and when the most difficult social questions, such as the status of women and child marriage, can only he settled by tho Indians themselves by means of a wide franchise that will give them a say in their own government and which may attract the best men into public life.”