ORDER IN INDIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21279, 24 February 1939, Page 5

ORDER IN INDIA

RESPONSIBILITIES OF BRITAIN AND STATES British Official Wireless RUGBY, February 20. The Under-Secretary for India was asked in the House of Commons whether, as the paramount power in India was bound by treaty to protect the Indian States from external aggression menacing their security and integrity, he would represent to the Government of India that Congress should be warned to cease aggressive agitation in the Indian States. He replied that Lord Zetland was satisfied that the attitude of the paramount power in regard to the agitation in the Indian States was known to all quarters in India. It was as stated in the Parliamentary answer before Christmas, that the paramount power will not obstruct proposals for the constitutional advance initiated by the rulers, but the British Government has no intention of bringing any form of pressure to bear upon them to initiate constitutional changes. It rests with the rulers themselves to decide what form of government they should adopt in the diverse conditions of the Indian States. The obligations of the paramount power to the Indian States extend to protecting the rulers against violence and disorder, and to advising and assisting the rulers in remedying such legitimate grievances of their subjects as may be found to exist.