MOST LOYAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 530, 6 December 1928, Page 9

MOST LOYAL

Lords Pay Tribute to Princes of India STATE RULERS British Official Wireless Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Wednesday. In the House of Lords, Baron Olivier of Ramsden, who was Secretary for India in the Labour Government of 1924, called attention to questions arising regarding government of Indian States not forming parts of any provinces of British India. He asked the Government whether it had in view any scheme for dealing with such questions concurrently and consistently with any amendments of the constitution of the British Indian Government, that may commend itself to Parliament in the outcome of an inquiry now being made by the Simon Commission. GREAT SERVICES Viscount Hardinge, a former Viceroy of India, said the Indian princes were one of the most loyal elements in India. They had rendered great services in the war, and had offered ships, men and airplanes. As a whole, the Indian States were well governed, and met the needs of the population. There were States like Mysore, that served as a model of good administration. He could conceive no steps more backward or more likely to be resented than any scheme by which they were placed in the position of subservience to the Legislative Assembly of the Central or Provincial Government. LORD READING’S PRAISE The Marquess of Reading, also a former Viceroy of India, said that during the whole of his experience in India no more loyal body could be found than the ruling Princes. He had never found the Princes as a body slow to recognise the necessity for making any concession, or for falling in with any view that might be put forward by the Government of India, which was founded upon a desire to protect India or to strengthen India in any way. The Princes desired to maintain as closely as they could their relations with the Viceroy, as the representative of the Government. Whatver the Princes might do, he felt that they would not desire to be placed under the Legislative Assembly. Certainly the Liberal Party, with which he was associated, had no desire to see any change in the system or sovereignty under which Indian Princes rule. They had no idea of compelling or in any way forcing upon the States a different constittuion from the one they at present enjoyed. Replying, Viscount Peel, Secretary for India, said that until the Government had received the report of Sir Harcourt Butler’s committee, and the report of Sir John Simon’s commission, discussion on the matter could be only speculative and hypothetical. As to whether the Government had any scheme, he could only say it had not any definite scheme. At the present time it would be clearly premature. The Government was, however, looking ahead, and examining (he questions, which could only be approached stage by stage, with full comprehension of the necessity of caution and deliberation. He desired to associate himself with the tributes that had been paid by the Marquess of Reading and Viscount Harding to the loyalty and devotion of the Indian prices.