§ 51. Sir WILLIAM DAVISONasked the Prime Minister if he will further define his statement in the recently published correspondence that the Indian Round Table Conference would be resumed as at the termination of the conference on January last, the scope of the discussions to be subject to certain specific safeguards in the interest of India, in view of the fact that the reservations and safeguards stipulated for as indispensable by the British delegates in January last were of a fuller and wider character than stated in his letter and laid down that adequate safeguards were indispensable not only in the interests of India but also in the interests of Great Britain, having regard to the financial and other responsibilities of this country in India?
§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Ramsay MacDonald)I fail to follow the hon. Member in the distinction which He seeks to draw between the attitude in regard to safeguards defined in my recently published letter to the right hon. Member for the Bewdley Division (Mr. S. Baldwin) and that which was declared by me on behalf of His Majesty's Government at the end of the Round Table Conference in January.
§ Sir W. DAVISONIs it not a fact that the Prime Minister himself limited the safeguards to safeguards in the interests of India, and is it not very desirable that before these delegates come over to this country it should be made quite clear to them that certain safeguards are indispensable not only in the interests of India but in the interests of Great Britain?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI am obliged to the hon. Member for drawing the attention of everybody concerned to what might be construed into a discrepancy, but which, so far as I am concerned, is no discrepancy at all.