HC Deb 16 September 1914 vol 66 cc955-62
The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)

I beg to move, "That His Majesty having directed a military force, consisting of British and Indian troops, charged upon the revenues of India, to be despatched to Europe for service in the War in which this country is engaged, this House consents that the ordinary pay and other ordinary charges of any troops so despatched, as well as the ordinary charges of any vessels belonging to the Government of India that may be employed in this expedition which would have been charged upon the resources of India if such troops or vessels had remained in that country or seas adjacent, shall continue to be so chargeable, provided that, if it shall be necessary to replace the troops or vessels so withdrawn by other vessels or forces, then the expense of raising, maintaining, and providing such vessels and forces shall be repaid out of any moneys which may be provided by Parliament for the purposes of the said expedition."

The Motion which stands in my name, and which I propose now to move, is one which I am quite certain will be received with complete assent and gratitude in every quarter of the House. I do not think that in all the moving exhibitions of national and Imperial patriotism which the War has evoked there is any which has more touched, and rightly touched, the feelings of this House and the country than the message sent by the Viceroy of India announcing the magnificent response which the princes and people of that country have made to our need. In consequence of the provisions of Section 55 of the Government of India Act, 1858, it is not constitutionally right or proper to charge upon the revenues of India, except in the case of actual invasion or of sudden and unforeseen emergency, the cost of troops that may be sent outside that country. The assent of both Houses of Parliament is needed before any such charge can be imposed upon the revenues of India. The assistance of the Indian Army under Imperial exigencies has been more than once—indeed, several times since the passing of that Act—offered by India and accepted by ourselves. I will not go into the precedents; it is not necessary to do so.

In most of those cases the whole cost of the charge has been met, as I am sure we would willingly meet it in this case, out of the revenues of the United Kingdom. But when this matter came up, as it did two or three weeks ago, before the Legislative Council of the Viceroy in India, one of the unofficial native members moved a resolution to the effect that India would desire, in the present emergency, that she should be allowed not only to send her troops, but to contribute the cost of their maintenance and pay, and the Viceroy, on behalf of the Government of India—and I am sure with the assent and sympathy not only of this House and the people of this country, but of the whole people of the British Empire—accepted that offer. The result is that, through this patriotic initiative, not in any sense dictated or inspired by the Government, but proceeding from an unofficial member of the Council of India, these splendid British and Indian troops which are now already upon their way, and which we believe will afford to us and to the Empire at large most effective assistance in the righteous struggle in which we are engaged, will be sent, as far as their ordinary charges are concerned, at the expense of the Government and people of India. The Motion I have to make is of a purely formal character. It is necessary in order to comply with the requirements of the Act of Parliament. I am sure we should not be giving expression to what everyone of us feels if we did not couple with its acceptance an acknowledgment, sincere and heartfelt, of the spontaneous and splendid assistance which our great Dependency of India is giving us.

Mr. BONAR LAW

I am glad to have the privilege of seconding the Resolution which has been moved. Since the War broke out nothing, as the Prime Minister has said—not even, I think, the heroic conduct of our own soldiers on the field of battle—has moved the people of this country more deeply than the spontaneous and enthusiastic outburst of loyalty to their Emperor and patriotism of the Empire of which we had an account in the message of the Viceroy given the other day. The circumstances under which this Resolution is necessary are another proof of the reality and of the value of that assistance. Previously when Indian troops, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, have been used out of India the Government of India has looked with a jealous eye in order to see that no part, of the financial burden would fall on the people of India. Now the Indian Government, representing and inspired by the Indian people, are not only sending their sons to risk their lives at the side of our own soldiers, by whom they will be proudly welcomed as comrades, but are insisting on bearing a share of the burden of the expense which is involved.

I ventured to say the other day at the Guildhall that the moral forces which our enemies not only despise but affront would prove in the long run stronger than the material forces on which alone they rely. It is on moral forces that we rely to-day. The generous aid which is coming to us from the self-governing Dominions in every part of the Empire is coming of their own free will. It could not be demanded by us, and it could not be enforced by us. This assistance from India also is coming not from force, but from good will, and I believe that it is coming because, on the whole, everyone who leaves this country to take part in the government of India, from the Viceroy to the humblest official, is inspired by the tradition that it is his duty not to exploit India for the benefit of this country, but to rule it for the good of the people of India. We have made mistakes, but on the whole we have succeeded, and it is because, in the main, the people of India recognise that that is the spirit in which the Government is carried on, that we have received so generously their assistance in our hour of need.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

I think that this occasion, when both parties in this House are giving expression to the debt of gratitude we feel to the people of India for their recent demonstration of loyalty and devotion to the Empire, is one which ought not to be allowed to pass without a protest from some Members of this House against the most unfortunate and most ungracious attack to which prominence was given in the columns of the "Times" on Monday, over the signature of Sir Frank Swettenham, on the people of India. He has thought that this demonstration of loyalty and devotion to the Empire on the part of the people of India was a fitting occasion to be used as a means for attacking a very large section of the Indian people, those especially who are represented in the Indian National Congress. He has stated that this demonstration of loyalty and devotion to the Empire, instead of being a proof of the solidarity of the people and of their devotion to the Empire as a whole, is only a proof that the voice we are accustomed to hear is that of a comparatively small section of professional talkers, whose occupation has disappeared in the face of the mighty issues which are moving the real heart of the people. I should have thought it was possible to learn a different lesson from the events happening in India. The lesson I should have thought it was possible to take would have been that those who, like Sir Frank Swettenham and his friends, have attempted to guide opinion in this country in the past, who have denounced these patriotic Indian politicians as mere professional talkers and dangerous agitators, have been mistaken in the past, and that in these demonstrations in India we have demonstrations of the real feelings of the people and of the Indian National Congress. I think we should better realise how deeply the wound of such language would be felt in India if we attempted to put the words which he has used into the mouth of some Liberal or some Unionist, and applied them to the Nationalists or the Unionists of Ireland. The demonstrations which we have received from both sections in Ireland could be referred to in these words:— The voice we are accustomed to hear is that of a comparatively small section of professional talkers, whose occupation has disappeared in the face of mighty issues which are moving the real heart of the people. If any of us, either Liberals or Unionists, were to use these words and to apply them to those to whom we have been previously opposed in Ireland—in either section—they would rightly be regarded as false and ungracious, and they would be no more false and no more ungracious than they are when applied to those who have voiced the political views of India in the past.

Sir JOHN JARDINE

I am not going to assail the dignity of this Resolution by touching on any controversial subjects at all. I hope that the words of the Prime Minister will be telegraphed immediately to our fellow subjects in the Indian Empire. I entirely agree with what the right hon. Gentleman who leads the Opposition said just now, that this wonderful, this astounding exhibition of loyalty, not merely from the rulers, but from all sections of the people of India, is largely due to the conviction that whatever our mistakes may have been in the past, our intentions have been honourable, good, and kindly. In fact, they realise now that the Government of the people has been good and, as has always been the policy of the Indian Government, largely in accordance with the traditions and customs of the country, which have been studied by those who have served the Government out there with a great deal of care. These offers have come, not merely from heads of the different States in India, but from innumerable local bodies, town councils, heads of communities, assemblies of students, men of education, some of whom have been under the discipline of the Courts for sedition in former days; indeed, all have joined in the general volume of loyalty, and I may say, without desiring to provoke the slightest feeling of opposition, that the fact that the proposal to charge the expenses of the Expeditionary Force to the people of India came from an unofficial member of the Viceroy's Council, a native gentleman, may partly be due to the reform of the Government of India that was undertaken a few years ago, giving greater powers to the natives, both in the Executive Cabinets of the Viceroys and the Governors, and also in the numerous Legislative Councils which have been established. When we passed that Act there was an indication that it met with general concurrence, and I remember remarking at the time that it was passed, as it ought to be, with the concurrence of the great parties of this country. And now that the chiefs, great and small—including some 178 chiefs and princes in the Presidency of Bombay—as well as the great chiefs in all parts of the Empire, have so warmly offered their armies, their resources, their swords, and even their sons to help in this great conflict in which we are engaged, let me say I think that is largely due to the change of policy which has resulted from the lessons of the mutiny.

We have ceased to be always on the hunt to increase our territory; we have shown the princes, great and small, that their princely estates are to be preserved, and they now know, from experience, that they are protected by the great paramount Power against all enemies who may dare invade India. An instance may be cited as having arisen at a time when the ruler of Mysore had no heir. I remember the great controversy which arose as to whether that kingdom should be annexed. It was decided by the Secretary of State in Council that it should not, and now we find the present Maharajah of Mysore coming forward with a gift of £550,000 and offering all his arms and all his resources. The same thing occurred when a Conservative Government was in power, when the question was whether the State of Baroda should be annexed on account of misgovernment of that State. Lord Salisbury decided that it should not. That action has given great satisfaction to these princes, who in many respects hold the same positions as those held by princes and grand-dukes of Germany in relation to the Kaiser. There have been times when British rule has disappeared from great areas of the country, yet law and order has been preserved, in their interests as well as our own, by the native princes. Some of them are coming forward; others are sending their sons. That is quite in accordance with their tradition of warriors, resembling very much the old chiefs on the borderland of Scotland, part of which I represent in this House. After such an incredible response of loyalty, the nation should take the utmost care, in every way and at every time, to show its full appreciation thereof, and, particularly, when the rainy months begin and the cold and the snows come on, should the War last that time, the country should subscribe liberally to funds to provide comforts for the Indian troops. I should say that the Hindus and the Mahomedans of India are joining most heartily in this movement, and in that way are giving the lie direct to much that we have seen in recent German literature, where the notion has been put forth—an unholy notion for any Christian kingdom—that the Imperial Government of Germany should get into alliance with Turkey in order to use the Sultan, as the head of all Islam, to raise rebellion in those countries governed by European Powers where there are many Mahomedans. I submit that at the present time to set up a Moslem war against us is a decidedly unholy thing. One of the best things in all this spontaneous movement is that it has shown that Moslem loyalty is as sound as the loyalty of those other defenders whom we hope soon to have fighting side by side with English, Irish, and Scottish troops on the battlefield, and then returning to this city to be seen by us.

Sir J. D. REES

My Leader has so completely expressed my feelings that I should not trouble the House except to put a question to the Financial Secretary to the War Office. I hope the great generosity of India, with which the House has been struck, will be imitated by those who have to deal with the financing of this question, and that British officers who proceed from India with their regiments to the front will not, as there seems to be some reason to fear they will be, put upon English pay.

The PRIME MINISTER

No, Sir, they will not.

Sir J. D. REES

I am very glad to have elicited that statement, because it would have been a very unfortunate circumstance, and would have led to some feeling. I am sure the Indian troops will cover themselves with glory in friendly rivalry with the British troops.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, "That, His Majesty having directed a military force consisting of British and Indian troops, charged upon the revenues of India, to be dispatched to Europe for service in the War in which this country is engaged, this House consents that the ordinary pay and other ordinary charges of any troops so dispatched, as well as the ordinary charges of any vessels belonging to the Government of India that may be employed in this expedition which would have been charged upon the resources of India if such troops or vessels had remained in that country or seas adjacent. shall continue to be so chargeable, provided that, if it shall be necessary to replace the troops or vessels so withdrawn by other vessels or forces, then the expense of raising, maintaining, and providing such vessels and forces shall be repaid out of any moneys which may be provided by Parliament for the purposes of the said expedition."

The remaining Government Orders of the Day were read and postponed.

Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER

The House awaits a message from the other House. Therefore, before proposing the Adjournment of the House, I intend to leave the Chair until six o'clock, or such other time as the message may be received. I will cause the bells in the House to be rung when the House resumes.

Sitting suspended at thirteen minutes before four o'clock.

Sitting resumed at twenty-five minutes before Seven o'clock.