Nov. 23.
Parliament's instrument of personal investigation ofthe Government's proposals for the new Constitution of India, has reported favourably. In accord with criticism authoritatively presented to the Committee, certain valuable safeguards have been introduced into the White Paper scheme. Moreover, safeguards already in that scheme have been strengthen ed. The Joint Select Committee's Report seems to have fulfilled the purpose of vindicating Parliament's ultimate responsibility for the political future of India. Yet it has kept to the lines of the implicit understanding that the general principles of the agreement reached at the three Round 'Table Conferences would be preserved. It has also justified the contention of reasonable critics that the White Paper proposals, not being sacrosanct, required' more definite provision of safeguards, in the light of known difficulties in developing responsible political opinion in India and their relation to the complex fabric of the administration as Iaboriously constructed in the course of two centuries of the British connection. Coming under the. severest possible scrutiny—thousands and thousands of questions and answers, piles of evidence and memoranda by British and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.