REFORM IN INDIA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20503, 3 January 1935, Page 2

REFORM IN INDIA.

Government’s Prudent Policy of Progress.

LONDON, January 2. A series of broadcast talks was opened by Sir Samuel Hoare (Secretary of St®*® for India; upon the Indian constitution proposals. He maintained that the Government’s Indian policv was one of prudent progress, supported by and experience. Nobody either in Great Britain or India, Sir Samuel maintained, had pro- £ u . ced . a . n Y workable alternative. Criticism in India must not be taken to mean that Indians would obstruct reform. The final test of the Government’s policy was whether it was for the better government of India. He certainly did not suggest that selfgovernment was in itself preferable to good government. That would be entirely inconsistent with the record of British rule in India. However, he did maintain that the old system of personal government, great as had been its achievements on the behalf of the Indian masses, was no longer sufficient. They had reached a point when the welfare of the people depended upon co-operation between the Government and Indian political elements and when the most difficult social questions, such as the status of women and child marriage, could only be settled by the Indians themselves by means of a wide franchise that would give them a say in their own government which might attract the best men into public life.