CONSERVATIVE OPINION

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1934, Page 5

CONSERVATIVE OPINION

INDIAN REFORM REPORT SYMPATHETIC RECEPTION PRIVATE GATHERING HELD GENERAL COMMENDATION British Wireless. Rugby, Nov. 27. Sir Austen Chamberlain, who is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform, addressed a private meeting of Conservative members of Parliament last night. The Press reports state that although no vote was taken there was abundant evidence that the tone of the meeting was sympathetic towards the committee’s proposals. Sir Austen Chamberlain is reported to have said that he went into the committee with grave doubts about some matters under the proposals which were the subject of the committee’s consideration, but as a result of his work in the committee his views underwent a considerable change. He was at first inclined to think it would be wise to deal for the present only with the proposals of provincial autonomy, but later he came to the conclusion that to establish eleven autonomous governments and leave the centre without any representative character would result in a further weakening of the central eleven autonomous governments and leave the centre without any representative character. This would result in a further weakening of the central government itself. He said it was imperative that in the same statute in which Parliament established provincial autonomy it should lay down conditions for a measure of responsibility at the centre, and he defended the changes which the committee proposed in the composition and character of the central legislature. Lord Zetland, a member of the committee, who addressed the India Association, said that while the report accepted the main principles of the White Paper it recommended some radical alterations in their application. In justification of the change from direct to indirect election for a general house of representatives he said the vast constituencies which would have been inevitable under the rejected plan would reduce the representative system to an absurdity. The tendencies inherited in any federation of which provinces were component parts would be more effectively counteracted by making provincial legislatures constituents of the federation,

Noting the additional safeguards in connection with the transfer of law and order, Lord Zetland said any objections thought still to attach to the proposals would be far less than those inherent in any attempt to deprive a ministry in all other respects self-gov-erning of the responsibility for the discharge of the most essential of all functions of government. The chairman, who is also a member of the House of Commons, said he regarded the report as well conceived and a comprehensive scheme in accordance with the traditions of Britain in the progressive and political development of its dependencies. He hoped it would meet with the approval of moderate opinion both in Britain and in India. The Marquess of Londonderry in a speech at Maidstone said the great weight of practical experience,. and knowledge lay behind the plan for the India federation and there never would be a surer guidance and greater authority on which to rely than that of th© committee report. Of its 32 members all except six had a personal knowledge of Indian affairs.