THE FUTURE OF INDIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19961, 20 November 1934, Page 7

THE FUTURE OF INDIA

WHITE PAPER TO BE ISSUED MOST IMPORTANT REPORT IN YEARS British Official Wireless (Received November 19, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, November 17. Undoubtedly the main political event of next week will be the publication of a report by the Joint Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform. The Joint Select Committee consists of members of both Houses of Parliament. All parties are represented, and the members include three ex-Viceroys, three former Secretaries of State for India, three former Undersecretaries of State for India, two exGovernors of Indian Provinces, four members who visited India with the Simon Commission, six members of the visiting committee appointed by the Round Table Conference and other Parliamentarians who have given long public service to India. Exceptional Authority. The committee -carries an exceptional weight of authority and it is doubtful if ever such a concentration of expert knowledge has been brought to bear upon any great Imperial question. The committee contains a proportion of men of such status as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Derby and Sir Austen Chamberlain, who have not hitherto been directly associated with Indian affairs and whose opinions must have, in the main, been shaped in the course of the committee proceedings. The report will supersede all previous documents on which it will be founded. It undoubtedly will be closely scrutinised and cannot hope to avoid criticism at least from those whose opinions have already been formulated in Britain. Premature Criticism. A large section of the Conservative Party expressed grave anxiety that the measure of constitutional reform will proceed too far and too fast. The Congress Party in India is already criticising the White Paper even before its rigorously guarded contents are published. Nevertheless, all the important documents will be issued at a time when the atmosphere of India shows an immense improvement on that of two or three years ago, when the Congress agitation was at its height. Now the Congress Party has returned to constitutional ways and is concentrating on obtaining votes to return its members to the next Legislature, while Gandhi, for so long a protagonist of non-co-operation, is using his influence with the electorate to bring them to the polls. Between these extremes of formulated opinion, there is an immense body of moderate, if less audible, opinion, which will regard the report objectively with the sole intention of judging its effects upon the best interests of India and her continued association with the Empire.