THE MARQUESS OF CREWEMy Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any announcement to make concerning India.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA AND BURMA (THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE)My Lords, I am glad to have this opportunity of drawing the attention of your Lordships to a statement issued today by the Governor-General with the authority of His Majesty's Government. As the statement is rather long I do not propose to read it, but the full text is now available as a White Paper in the Printed Paper Office. The statement opens with a reference to India's manifest anxiety to increase her already important contribution to the common cause and to His Majesty's Government's deep concern that the unity of national purpose required to this end should be achieved as soon as possible. After referring to the lack of agreement among the major political Parties which caused the failure to secure unity through the expansion of the Governor-General's Executive Council and the appointment of a Consultative Committee last autumn, and to the continuance of these differences as revealed in more recent private conversations, as well as in public resolutions, the statement declares that His Majesty's Government do not feel that they should any longer postpone action. They have accordingly authorised the Governor-General to proceed with the expansion of his Executive Council and to set up also a War Advisory Council, the latter to contain representatives of the Indian States and of other interests in the national life of India as a whole; and to issue in the appropriate quarters invitations to join these bodies.
The Governor-General then refers to the doubts which are evidently still felt as to the intentions of His Majesty's Government for the constitutional future of India. 157 He observes that two main points have emerged in this connection on which His Majesty's Government have desired him to make their position clear, one being the position of minorities in relation to constitutional changes and the other the machinery for building the new scheme when the time comes. Your Lordships will find that this is done in the last two paragraphs of the statement.
THE MARQUESS OF CREWEMy Lords, I am sure your Lordships will have heard with satisfaction the fact that proposals have been made for further development of the action of the Government of India with regard to questions between India and ourselves, but in view of the fact that the noble Lord, Lord Strabolgi, has a Motion on the Paper for next week for a discussion on the whole question of India, I feel that at this moment, particularly as the White Paper has only just come within the knowledge of your Lordships, you would wish to defer any general discussion on the question until next week.