HL Deb 12 December 1911 vol 10 cc801-5

THE DURBAR ANNOUNCEMENT.

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (VISCOUNT MORLEY)

My Lords, it is my duty on behalf of His Majesty's Ministers to lay before your Lordships, in an authentic form, the language which a few hours ago only His Majesty was graciously pleased to use in that vast and incomparably imposing assembly which had met to pay him their homage and allegiance at Delhi. His Majesty testified in words of moving depth and sincerity of feeling his sense of the sympathy—and these are His Majesty's own words—and affectionate good will which unite the Princes and peoples of India, whose representatives were then before him, with himself and the Queen Consort, who accompanied him. His Majesty then commanded his Governor-General to recite certain marks of his special favour and consideration, designed by him to commemorate the auspicious event of his Coronation some months ago, and, finally, he announced some new and far-reaching steps in Indian policy, which, on the advice of his Ministers, he had resolved to adopt. The keystone of this portion of the gracious speech is to be found in a paragraph which, perhaps, the House will allow me to read— We are pleased to announce to our people that on the advice of our Ministers, tendered after consultation with our Governor-General in Council, we have decided upon the transfer of the seat of the government of India from Calcutta to the ancient capital of Delhi; and simultaneously, and as a consequence of that transfer, the creation at as early a date as possible of a Governorship for the Presidency of Bengal, of a new Lieutenant-Governorship in Council for Behar, Chota Nagpur, and Orissa; and, finally, of a chief Commissionership of Assam, with such administrative changes as may by-and-bye be found necessary. My Lords, no words of mine are needed, or even tolerable, in commending this im- portant paragraph on the present occasion; but meanwhile I commend it to the attention and consideration of the Sovereign Parliament. Papers containing the language of His Majesty, the language of the Governor-General, and besides that the Despatch which the Governor-General addressed to the Secretary of State in August this year and the reply of the Secretary of State to the Governor-General are now ready and will be in the hands of your Lordships directly.

THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE

My Lords, I doubt whether this House has ever listened to a more important statement than that which has just fallen from the lips of the noble Viscount opposite. He has informed us of impending changes in the Government of India which, whether we consider their intrinsic magnitude, or whether we consider the circumstances in which they are proposed, cannot fail to mark an epoch in the annals of the Indian Empire. The noble Viscount did not say too much when he spoke of these changes as new and far-reaching, for far-reaching they certainly will be. These great changes have obviously been advised by His Majesty's Councillors with the intention of enabling His Majesty to signalise his visit to India by some conspicuous measure gratifying and acceptable to His Majesty's Indian subjects, and of such a kind as will enable them to look back in future years to the year of the King-Emperor's visit as a great landmark in the history of India. I can well understand that that should be the wish of His Majesty's Government, and I do not think anyone will be found to question the policy of thus commemorating the King-Emperor's visit by some great and beneficent measure. Our first impulse then, certainly is to give what encouragement we can to any proposals made with this admirable object. But the changes which the noble Viscount has described raise such grave issues that no consideration, I venture to think, would justify us in hurriedly passing a judgment upon them or in doing anything which might hereafter be regarded as depriving us of our right of freely criticising what is suggested.

These changes involve much which can scarcely fail to provoke criticism. I gather that the points of importance are four in number. There is, in the first place, the proposal to transfer the seat of the government of India from Calcutta to the ancient capital of Delhi—a proposal involving the uprooting of many traditions which, though not perhaps carrying us to a very remote past, are nevertheless deeply seated in the sentiment of a part of the Indian community. In the next place, there is the proposal to institute a new Lieutenant-Governorship for Behar, Chota Nagpur, and Orissa, and the much more important proposal which accompanies it for the creation of a great Bengali Presidency, numbering some forty millions of people, under a Governor in Council, assisted, of course, by an Executive Council and a Legislative Council. Those are the principal changes, and there is a less important change with regard to the Chief Commissionership of Assam which I only mention in passing. These proposals involve an abrupt reversal of the policy initiated by my noble friend behind me (Lord Curzon), accepted by his successor in the Viceroyalty, accepted by the late Government, and continued by the Government which is now in power.

But, my Lords, what makes these proposals really of quite exceptional importance is the fact that they are to be connected with the personal intervention of the sovereign. That is a very serious matter indeed. These new departures, which I can only characterise as of the utmost gravity, will, unless I am mistaken, provoke in India every variety of feeling, ranging from great elation to great disappointment, and from the highest hopes to serious mortification. The policy of His Majesty's Government will certainly provoke criticism, but I venture to suggest to your Lordships that this is not the moment for attempting such criticism. We are within a very few days of the end of the Session. The time of the House, unless I am mistaken, is already fully occupied, and your Lordships would not have time to study sufficiently a subject which is extremely complex and difficult, even for those who have had some experience of Indian administration. Apart from that, I cannot help feeling that if we were to enter upon a critical examination of these matters it might be difficult to avoid a jarring note which none of us would like to strike at the present time.

There is another consideration which leads me to the same conclusion. Nothing which this House can say or do can alter what has been announced by His Majesty this morning. The word of the King-Emperor has been passed, and that word is irrevocable. For these reasons, my Lords, I venture to think that we should do well to defer for a time the discussion of these great events, but. beyond all doubt we shall ask for an opportunity of discussing it, and of discussing it with the utmost freedom. We shall be discussing events which, for better or for worse, cannot fail to render His Majesty's visit to India ever memorable in the history of the Empire.

LORD MAC DONNELL OF SWINFORD

My Lords, I ask your permission to make a very few remarks. It may be in your Lordships' remembrance that when the scheme of reform for India was presented to you by the noble Viscount who was then Secretary of State I ventured to suggest that there were certain aspects of the Indian question that were not satisfied by his otherwise noble scheme of reform. I particularly mentioned, and, indeed, I put down a Motion on the subject, that the proper way to deal with this question was to bring all the Bengali-speaking peoples under one governor, creating Behar, Chota Nagpur, and Orissa into an independent governorship, and relegating Assam into a Chief Commissionership. I cannot say with what deep satisfaction I find that His Majesty the King has passed the Orders that he has passed to-day. I believe they are Orders which will create the utmost feeling of loyalty and satisfaction in India. They are the kind of Orders that were wanted to give the same significance to the occasion as attached to the Declaration bringing India under the control of the Crown. I believe that there may be, and probably will be, some factitious expressions of disappointment, but I consider that these Orders are the greatest that have ever been issued to secure loyalty to and the prosperity of the British Raj in India.

EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON

My Lords, as one who was, like the noble Marquess, responsible during a number of years for the Government of India, I should like to add a few words to what he has said. The changes which were announced to us just now by the noble Viscount, as spokesman of His Majesty's Government, are so startling and tremendous in their character and consequences, they involve so abrupt a departure from what has been the traditional and accepted policy of the Government of India, not merely, as my noble friend has said, during the past decade, but during the past century or more—they bear in one respect, at any rate, as has been alluded to by the noble Lord who has just spoken, so strong a political flavour, and, above all, they are invested with so novel and unprecedented a character in being placed at a moment of great solemnity in the lips of the Sovereign, that I venture to say they demand the closest attention and the most minute scrutiny at the hands of your Lordships' House.

The noble Lord who has just spoken has given me an opportunity, did I wish to take it, of following him upon a delicate but also stormy field of controversy. With his views I am wholly in disagreement. I shall take an opportunity at an early date—one having been denied me on a previous occasion because I was not present in the House when the noble Lord made the speech to which he has referred—of meeting him in discussion on this matter. But for the moment I do not desire to strike any discordant note. The noble Marquess beside me has reminded your Lordships that we are in the expiring days of the session of Parliament, and an even graver consideration, in the effect that it must have On Our judgment, is that the King, who has made this Declaration, is still in India in pursuance of a tour with which we all sympathise, and which we desire shall be attended with circumstances of congratulation and success. In these circumstances, while reserving to myself all the rights that are inherent in every member of your Lordships' House, I concur, although not without some hesitation, in the advice that has been given by the noble Marquess. But, my Lords, I hope that, at the first favourable moment in the new session of Parliament your Lordships will consider it your duty, with all the information that will then be at your disposal and in the light of the reception that public opinion will have given to these great changes, to insist upon devoting the fullest examination and deliberation, without favour and without prejudice, to the momentous decision that has been announced this afternoon. My Lords, I will not trust myself at the present moment to say more on the subject lest I should contravene the principle in which I have expressed my acquiescence.