HC Deb 12 March 1928 vol 214 cc1487-8
5. Mr. WELLOCK

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Governor of Bengal stated in a university convocation speech recently that if students participated in hartals he would refuse to give any funds to the university; that the Punjab Ministry of Education recently issued a circular to the effect that grants would be withdrawn from a school without notice if the manager or any member of the managing committee or any of the teachers employed in the school take part in political propaganda or agitation directed against the authority of government or disseminate opinions tending to excite feelings of disloyalty or disaffection against Government or of enmity, and enmity against any section or sections of His Majesty's subjects; and whether, as these declarations indicate a change of policy, he will say if they were authorised by the Government of India?

Earl WINTERTON

Educational policy, being a transferred subject, is not liable to control by the Government of India. My Noble Friend is not, therefore, prepared to make any comment upon any course of action which provincial Governments feel it is desirable to take in the interests of good order and decency in educational establishments over which they exercise full or partial control. I may add that the hon. Member does not appear to have summarised accurately the speech of the Governor of Bengal at the annual convocation of Calcutta University.