with the information at their disposal and with so many questions still undecided, are not convinced that the executive envisaged in the report can be successfully adopted to the special conditions of an all-India federation.
"They therefore desire to see further explored methods for morea: ing Indian control of the Federal Government that are better suited to all-India needs than those founded upon British precedents.
"They are not satisfied that the safeguards recommended far sect tug our Imperial obligations prove effective andy in, partievlar, They fear Unt the. Bnanelal. pro: poets wil disturb the confidence commercial classes and impair stability of Indian credit, In the meantime they must—reserve their opinion upon many disputed points."
Sir Tei Bahadur Sapru said that)
allauia federation had" been idea throughout the Conference trid it would tear fruit," Dealing rth the minorities, he enphasaed the necessity of the ing satisfied that they had a potion of honor able safety under the constitution. Otherwise, he declared, the con-fetation vould "not endure, "He still boped that the good sense of the two communities would prevail td hat the foundations would of permanent unity between minutes i Tad. if they stood Feil, they could improve fe to the tatisvsction of everyone in India They would have to. wait Tong tuch another chance The report of the Services subcommittee, presented to-day, recom.
provision under the new Constitution for the maintenance of the rights of existing members of the Taian services, It recommends that special consideration should be given to claims for employment in public services by members of the Anglo-Indian community; and he view is, pressed that there should be a Batutory_ declaration that. nope sons should be under any disability for admission or promotion in any branch of the public services merely by reason of community, caste, creed Face, the committee beating mind, in particular, the case of the depressed classes, who should have fil services, including the Police, iirotn open to them, Jan, 14.
Renewed efforts to settle the Hindu-Moslem problem were made to-day at the meeting of the Minorities Committee of the Round-Tabte Conference over which the Premier, Mr, Ramsay Macdonald, pr:
An offer was made cly Sir! Mohammed Shafi, on behalf of the Moslem delegation, which Dr. B. S. Moonje, the leader of the Hindu delegation, described as showing a spirit of accommodation.
Sir Mohammed Shafi recalled that during previous negotiations the minority question the main difficulty had been the subject of representation in Bengal and the Punjab, the two provinces of India in which the Moslems were in a majority. He was now authorized by the Moslem delegation, he said, to propose that the Moslems should have, through the communal elector-fates, forty-nine per cent. of the seats in the whole House in Punjab and forty-six per cent. in Bengal, with the right to cantest special constituencies.
In so far as the Minoiity provinces were concerned the Moslems should continue to enjoy the represenvation they had at present through separate electorates. If at any subsequent time, however, two-thirds of the representatives of any community in any Provincial Legislative Council or in the Central Legislative Council desired to give up cemzunal electorates and Accept joint electorates, then the system of joint electorates should come into being in that pariieular Provincial or Central Legislature as the case might be.
The result of this proposal Bengal, he said, would de that. Moslems would remain in a permanent minority although they constituted the majority of the population. The special constituencies it was proposed to set up there were such that the Moslems could hope at the best to secure only one seat, namely Dacca University. In the Punjab they might conceivably secure two of the special con: uueney seats in which case they might have a majority of one.
Sir Mohammed Shafi declared that this was the Moslems' final offer and they could not_ possibly ree to any greater sacrifice than involved.
Mr. Srinavasa Sastri, who then addressed the Committee, said he had listened to the offer of the Moslems with respect. He and his friends believed that the difieulties were capable of settlement and had indeed been more or less settled in regard to the greater part of Indi The difficulties remained now only in Bengal and the Punjat. The offer just made was, he said, one which he and his friends thought might be accepted by these two provinces. He pointed out that the non-settlement of the Hindu-Moslem problem delayed the whole work of the Conference.
Sardar Sahib Ujjal Singh said the Sikhs could, in no case accept less than a 24 per cent. representation in the Punjab Council.
Sir Provash Chandra Mitter feared that the offer would not lead to peace in Bengal and for that reason he considered is was unacceptable.
Dr. Narendra' Nath Law, Hindu delegate from the Punjab,—a's pointed out that his population would be reduced by the offer from a thirty-two per oont. representa~ tion to a twenty-seven per cent. representation.
Dr. B. S. Moonje expressed the jew that if the specific and inspiring offer of the Moslems was strengthened and discussion continued, accommodation was at last within sight. He suggested, therefore, that the Committee should ndjourn and that a few representative members from each side, the Premier as conciliator, should consider the situate rely.
The private meeting failed to reach an agreement, but it is understood that the difficulties have been reduced to the narrowest posble margin, namely, the question of one seat in the Punjad Council.
Actually an agreement was reached by Hindus and Moslems. Delegates representing both these communities made an appeal to the Sikhs to modify their demands, but the Sikhs refused to The work of the sub-committee dealing wich the separation of Sind from Bombay was concluded to-day.
The Committee's draft report admits that the case for the division of Sind from Bombay is impressive. The Government of Bombay, it states, has pointed out certain ad~ ministrative difficulties but these are not thought to be insuperable. It is recommended that a committee experts in India should examine carefully the financial aspects of] separation.
An early substantial increase in the Indianization of the Indian Army and the establishment of a training college in India for officers of all arms of the Indian Defence Services are the chief recommendations of the Defence Sub-Committee of the Round Table Conference.
The Comtnittee also advocates the utmost reduction in the number of British troops in India, but recognised the necessity of not igfringing upon the responsibility of the Crown through the Committee of Imperial Defence, which is not merely concerned with India but with the Empire as a whole.
Jan, 15.
At the meeting of the full Committee of the Conference to-day, the reports of the various subcommittees were reviewed.
During the discussion, Lord Sankey pointed out that the Federal Structure Sub-committee had proceeded on the basic assumption that the principle that responsibility for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.