DELEGATES OPTIMISTIC

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1930, Page 7

DELEGATES OPTIMISTIC

TONE OF INDIA CONFERENCE EQUALITY IN EMPIRE SOUGHT AUTONOMY IN FEDERATION __ f PRIOR CERTAINTY URGED British Wireless. Rugby, Nov. 19. The general discussion on federal or unitary government of India was continued to-day at the conference. Newspapers state the tone of the speeches so far and the wide latitude allowed the speakers by the president have created an optimistic feeling among the Indian delegates. The proposal from the business committee was again on the agenda to-day: ‘'Tligt, following the general discussion ' on federal relations, a committee be appointed tn consider the structure of the federal system of Indian Government _as regards the relations between the States and British India and those between the provinces of British India and the centre, and to make recommendations .is to the principles to he applied.” This proposal; with fqrther recqmrfuendatioijs from the business committee as', to its composition and powers, was before the conference yesterday but the president ruled that various suggested amendments to > the scheme should be .considered by the committee before the main proposal was submitted to the conference. The f a ’° delegations from India met separately yesterday and nominated representatives, 10 from the States and 16 from British India, to serve on the fedepal relations committee when the proposal to establish it was passed by the conference.

EAST AND WEST CO-OPERATION.

Continuing the general discussion the Maharajah of Patiala said tjigt if, as he prayed, India remained within the Britjsh Empire as a partner 'equal in dignity with sister States in the British Commonwealth, there would result such a free and voluntary co-operation hetweep t]ie East and the West as the world hgd never known. The Pripces readily responded to the eloquent appeal by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru to recognise that they were Indians first and Princes afterwards, but by remaining Princes they did not cease, to be Indians. He felt strongly that the Indjpp States had it in their power to make a contribution no less valuable to the great India of the future than the contribution of British India itself. -The readiness of the Princes to work for the ideal of a greater India had already been’ made manifest, and their desijny lay along the road of federation, for which he was prepared to work. Developing the meaning the Princes attached to the federation, he said their maintenance of the JJritish connection was a fundamental assumption, and outsit., matters of common concern tj'e States must preserve intact. The im ternal autonomy rights of the federating units must first be known. Willingness to enter the federal arrangement entitled them to ask if there should bp a prior ascertainment of those rights by + he decision of the highest judicial trib’ 1 " al to which his Majesty’s Government and the Indian States may agree to refer the question. Such ascertainz :qent'wopld directly facilitate the formation of that federal arrangement through • which unity could best be achieved. Dr. B, S. Moonje, after replying in detail tp Lord Peel’s speech, said he and his Hindu cpllpqgqes 'had pot cojpe. to ask whether the British Government was going tp give Dominion status. They had come as a mark of longstanding friendship to tell the British people what Indiq thought and what was the present situation so they might’ exercise injler pendent judgment as to how to. proceed. Infiians of all ages and both sexes could never be satisfied with anything less i than Dominion status or a full and responsible Government. They were suffering indignities and oppression, but the time had passed when any show of physical forces would cow the Indian people. .This was the parting of the ways for tfie British people and Indians, and it was on account' of the British association with India for over a century that he hftd been prompted to come to London, against the condemnation of his friends and against assertions that he was ft traitor for doing so.

FREEDOM OF INDIANS. Dr. Moonje emphasised that India vvqnted to be a Dominion within the Empire so that it might also be in a position to look on the Empire as its ovyn, If fear and suspicion would not lead them to make the offer .of Dominion status, India would be satisfied with nothing less than full and responsible Government. He wanted to be as free in Infija as a Canadian was in Canada, and nothing less would satisfy him. Further, he would never tolerate the suggestion that the Indian people could not defend thpiy own country and that the responsibility must rest on the British. The question was whether India should be complementary to England or opposite to England. In the latter case there ' might be constant warfare, trouble and repression. The Sikh representative/ Sardar Ujjal Singh, sajfl that frpni the viewpoint of Britjsli India their immediate business was to obtain the substance of independence, the status of partnership in the Empire and a full measure of responsible governnipnt in autonomous proving , under a responsible central Government. He submitted that no amount of autonomy ip the would satisfy Indian opinion unless responsibility was established in the central Government.

He asked that the just claims of the Sikh community, which would be the backbone of India, as a Dominion, should not be ignored. The test of a constitution was tjio measure of security it provided for the minorities. With the soil;.ion of the minorities problem and the introduction of a system of responsible government satisfying Indian opinion, the question of law and order bevapie easy. Indians were more peaceloving than Westerners, and if their legitimate demands were granted there was no reason why there should be any more disorder. While the federation of self-gov-erippg provinces in British India and the Jndian States was attractive, it was still an ic]ea wlfich could not immediately rqature. At the outset they could so trame the constitution as to leave the door opei| to the Indian States to come in ,but nothing should be done which migljt stifle the process of unification and nationhood. They must guard against disintegrating tendencies by various units and nothing should be done in particular to weaken the authority or credit of the central Government, They should evolve a system

neith ’ strictly federal nor unitary, but pne adapted to their peculiar conditions. Sir Ann P. Patio, of the Madras Legislative Council, emphasised the necessity for full responsibility, subject to such safeguards for a temporary period'as might be essential, and urged that India be placed in line with the other States of the British Commonwealth. Every nation had its extremists. It would be true statesmanship to control and conciliate such forces in India and bring abbut constitutional changes which would keep them within the constitution. It might not be too late now to do that. Maulana Muhammpd Ali, an opponent of the, civil disobedience movement, referred to his internment in 1925, adding: ‘T want to return to India only if I take the substance of freedom; otherwise I will not go back to a slave country. I prefer to dje in any free countty. You will have to find me a grave here if we go back without the birth of a ne” Dominion —it will be going back to a lost Dominion. I. do not believe in Dominion status; I am committed to complete independence.”