UNREST IN INDIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18636, 4 August 1930, Page 16

UNREST IN INDIA.

DISCUSSION IN THE COMMONS. LETTER FROM SIR JOHN SIMON. (British Official Wireless'. RUGBY. July 21. In the House of Commons to-night, Sir Austen Chamberlain said he had intended to make a further appeal to the Government regarding their decision not to invite representatives of the Statutory Commission on India to be delegates at the Round Table Conference, but this morning he had received a letter from Sir John Simon, chairman of the Commission, which altered the situation. In it Sir John said he would have welcomed an opportunity to serve on the Conference had the Government so wished, but the Prime Minister had stated that there were very strong reasons which made it undesirable. “Of course it will be difficult for the Commission’s report to receive fair or adequate treatment in a Conference which includes no one w T ho can either expound our recommendations with authority, or explain on behalf of the Commission the considerations or evidence which must be weighed before criticism of the report can be regarded as well founded, but I can well understand that by this arrangement it is hoped to attract to the Conference some Indian elements which might otherwise be unwilling to come.” Sir John added that the opportunity however, w r ould remain even for the Commissioners to take part in the discussion which must follow. Sir A. Chamberlain warmly praised the tone of the letter, and said that obviously he could now make no further appeal to the Government to reconsider their decision, for the consequences of which the Government would be wholly responsible. He paid a warm tribute to the services of the Commission. The Secretary for India. Mr Wedgwood Benn, associated the Government with this tribute, and said the Government’s decision was based on the simple grounds that at a round table conference the British delegates would meet Indian delegates with an open mind. The work of a Statutory Commission was done, and the conclusion presented. The Conference would consider that among other matters the absence of the Commissioners from the Conference was, he contended, a perfectly natural and proper thing.