HC Deb 05 February 1934 vol 285 cc775-6
2. Sir A. KNOX

asked the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to a recent letter of the Governor of Bombay, in which he addressed the boy scouts of Sind as future citizens of an independent province; and whether he authorised the Governor to forestall the recommendations of the Joint Select Committee and the decision of Parliament?

Sir S. HOARE

My attention has been drawn to the matter, but I am not in possession of the actual text of the letter referred to. The Governor of Bombay was obviously doing no more than refer to the well-known policy of the Government, which is subject, as any policy involving legislation must be, to the approval of Parliament. There is no occasion to attach to his words a meaning which was not and could not have been intended.

Sir A. KNOX

Surely the wording of the letter gave the people to understand that the whole question had been settled. Would it not be desirable that this should be left to the report of the Joint Select Committee and the decision of Parliament and that people should not be misled?

Sir S. HOARE

The people of Sind take their views from the expressed policy of His Majesty's Government. More than once that policy has been expressed in the past. They are not likely to take it from a letter written to a jamboree of boy scouts.

Sir A. KNOX

Was not that letter published widely in the native Press, and how can these people possibly distinguish between the decision of His Majesty's Government and the decision of Sovereign Parliament?

Sir S. HOARE

I incline to think that they will be better able to distinguish between what matters and what does not than my hon. and gallant Friend.

Sir WILLIAM DAVISON

Is it not a fact that the people of India take their knowledge of what happens in this Parliament from the statements of the Governor and the Viceroy? Is it not very unwise that the Viceroy and the Governor should make a statement until after the report of the Joint Select Committee, when we have been told that nothing shall be done until the report is published?

Sir S. HOARE

There is no reason for my hon. Friend's anxiety. The position is quite clear. The position of the Government is well known, and this letter adds nothing to and detracts nothing from the policy of the Government.

Sir A. KNOX

Has not the argument been thrown out in favour of the Indian policy of the Government that Indians have been led to expect certain things and that we cannot go back?

Sir S. HOARE

The hon. and gallant Gentleman can draw what conclusions he likes. The position is as I have stated it.

Lieut.-Commander AGNEW

Is not the policy of the Government liable to be modified by the report of the Joint Select Committee?

Sir S. HOARE

Certainly, and if the hon. and gallant Gentleman had followed my answer, he would have seen that I safeguarded the position of Parliament.

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