§ THE MARQUESS OF LINLITHGOW moved to resolve, That it is desirable that the publication of the Report and Proceedings of the Joint Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform, and of such further records as may be laid upon the Table by the Committee, shall take place simultaneously in Great Britain and in India, and that copies printed by His Majesty's Stationery Office be published in India at the same time that they are published in this country.
§ The noble Marquess said: My Lords, it is a salutary practice of Parliament that the Report of a Committee of either House be made available to that House, or in the case of the Report of a Joint Committee, to both Houses, immediately such Report has been voted by the Committee. Should Parliament not be sitting when such Report is voted, it is required to he laid as soon as Parliament meets. I think the House will agree that it is essential that the Report of the Joint Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform should be made public upon the same day in this country and in India. In order that this may be carried out, sufficient time must elapse between the voting of the Report and the day of publication, to enable copies of the Report to be sent to India. The purpose of this Resolution is to obtain the leave of the House to proceed with the necessary arrangements.
§ There is in existence a precedent for the course suggested—namely, the Report of the Joint Select Committee on Closer Union in East Africa. This was also laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament on October 6, 1931, but not made public until November 2, in order that, there might be simultaneous publication in this country and in East Africa. Indeed it is difficult to conceive of any other course being taken in the case of Reports of major importance which concern a distant part of the Empire as closely as they do this country. Clearly it would be most 91 undesirable that opinion overseas upon any Report of the magnitude of this one should be formed upon material necessarily condensed telegraphed out to India by news agencies and the like. If the arrangements proposed can be carried out I hope that—subject always to no unforeseen accident arising—simultaneous publication may be made on or about November 22. I may add that the course suggested meets with the approval of every member of the Joint Select Committee. I greatly hope that in the circumstances the House will agree to postpone publication in this country for the period necessary to secure simultaneous publication in both countries. I beg to move.
§ Moved to resolve, That it is desirable that the publication of the Report and Proceedings of the Joint Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform, and of such further records as may be laid upon the Table by the Committee, shall take place simultaneously in Great Britain and in India, and that copies printed by His Majesty's Stationery Office be published in India at the same time that they are published in this country.—(The Marquess of Linlithgow.)
§ LORD LLOYDMy Lords, I only propose to offer one observation, and before doing so I should like to take this opportunity of congratulating the noble Marquess on the completion of his long labours and the work to which he has brought all the skill and assiduity which we should naturally expect from him. I am all the more glad to be able to congratulate him on the completion of his labours inasmuch As my congratulations on the results of his labours, if rumour is true, might be perhaps indefinitely postponed. But I do not think any of us wish for a moment to question the desirability of simultaneous publication, and it is pretty evident, I think, that we are some of us very concerned about a delay of nearly a month which we hoped might have been avoided. I naturally do not complain of the very long delays which have taken place since the Joint Select Committee was set up. We all know how arduous have been its labours, how much evidence has had to be taken; we know, too, how much evidence also has had to be shut out. Unfortunately most of the evidence that has had to be shut out, I 92 fancy, has been on transferred subjects which affect very vitally the masses of the people in India.
But once no more evidence can be taken, once the Committee's work is terminated, it does seem to me that it is tremendously important that the situation of members of both Houses of Parliament should have very immediate consideration from His Majesty's Government. We have got an enormously long Report. We had a Cabinet Minister the other day telling us that the Bill was going to contain some hundreds of clauses. We are going to have this Report debated very soon, and I should have thought that it was of the highest importance, if any really careful scrutiny or even elementary digestion of so formidable a document by Members of Parliament were to take place, that it should be put into our hands at the earliest possible moment. It is scarcely fair to expect us to debate the question in about five or six weeks' time when we shall have had the Report for only about three weeks. I do not know if this delay was really necessary. I should have thought a copy of the Report could have been sent out—there are such things as aeroplanes—by aeroplane and multiplied in India. We could have saved a fortnight and probably more time in so doing. I do not know whether the noble Marquess has really realised how difficult a task it is going to be for a large number of members of both Houses whose familiarity with Indian problems is not so great as his own or even some of us who have been connected with that country—how terribly formidable it is going to be for them to formulate an opinion. I cannot believe that the Government wish to give slavish adherence to one side or the other in a case of this important magnitude. I for one would like my noble friend to tell us why a more expeditious method could not have been followed. There may be a good reason, but he told us nothing about it. He merely assumed that simultaneous publication must involve a delay of three weeks or a month.
THE MARQUESS OF LINLITHGOWThe noble Lord, Lord Lloyd, and your Lordships' House may rest assured that the possibility of using aeroplanes did occur to those responsible. The matter was very carefully gone into in great detail. 93 Every possible solution was studied, and in conjunction with those who are really responsible for this matter once the Report has been passed—namely, the Stationery Office—it was decided that the way proposed was the best in the public interest.
§ LORD LLOYDMay I ask whether the noble Marquess can tell us, if the Report is not going to be in our hands until November 20, when he expects that we shall be called upon to debate it in this House? How long a period of digestion and study are we going to be allowed? If he cannot answer that question perhaps some member of the Government will be able to answer it.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)My Lords, no date has been fixed on which the debate should takes place. As my noble friend knows, the new Session is expected to commence on November 20, and any day between then and Christmas would be available, I suppose, which was for the convenience of your Lordships' House generally. Naturally it will be open to any noble Lord to put down a Motion and to consult the general convenience with regard to when that Motion shall be debated. I cannot give a date. Obviously I do not know what are the feelings of the majority of your Lordships, but I take it that you would desire probably to debate the Report in some form before the Bill is Introduced. Presumably therefore the debate would take place before Christmas, but the exact date is a matter for the general convenience of your Lordships, which naturally I should study.
§ EARL HOWEIs it in order for me to ask the noble Viscount the Leader of the House if he can give us any idea of the date when the Bill is likely to be introduced?
§ VISCOUNT HAILSHAMI am afraid I am not in a position to answer that question. Naturally the Government will be anxious to introduce the Bill as early as they can, but I should doubt myself whether it will be possible to do so before the new year.
§ LORD LLOYDSurely the noble Viscount would not expect us to engage in a really intelligent discussion of so enormous a document in under three or four weeks? Yet apparently he envisages a debate well before Christmas.
§ VISCOUNT HAILSHAMIf it be felt that it would be more convenient not to debate the Report until January or February, I do not think the Government would have any objection. I was imagining that some of your Lordships would desire to discuss it, at an early date. If the general feeling is that the debate had better be deferred until the new year do not think there will be any objection raised from the Government Benches. It might, of course, have this disadvantage, that the Bill might be introduced in another place—because presumably it will be introduced in the House of Commons—before the Government had had an opportunity of hearing a discussion in this House. Beyond that there does not seem to be any extreme urgency for the debate. I can only assure your Lordships that we have no desire to hurry on the debate, but naturally we would wish to hear the views of your Lordships as soon as your Lordships feel in a position to give expression to those views.
§ LORD LLOYDThen the noble Viscount cannot give us any idea when the Bill is likely to be introduced?
§ VISCOUNT HAILSHAMNot beyond what I have stated.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to, and ordered accordingly.
§ Report from the Joint Committee (with the Proceedings of the Committee) made.