Oct, 30, Among the less perturbed countries in the world just now is India. With her 338 million people she contributes a weighty quota to the volume of ordered administration. Thanks to the steady judgment of the British nation and to the sage cooperative faculty of the majority of India's political leaders, an epoch-making constitutional change ap-, proved by Westminster last year is being smoothly brought into operation. +On April 1,°1937, eleven autonomous provinces come into being. Over them Indian statesmen will bear the responsibility for the civil government within their re~
Yon electors will be directly contributing to the shaping of policy. To use the words of the Marquis of Linlithgow; the new Viceroy, int his first address to the two Houses of the Central. Legislature. last mont 'The unitary, system of Government, for 0' long the supreme authority in India, 1s disappearing as we Watch. In' Its place great autonomous Provinces make their and nally comes the crowning the entire structure, "and embracing within its ample scope: the common lit. and aspirations of one-Afth of ths human race, dispersed over a subcontinent as large as Western europe, Such will be the structure of Government in. India which, when the task Is completed, will meet the gaze of a watching world; 2 spectacle whose dignity and grandeur will be not unworthy of @reat and famous country.
Lord Linlithgow went to India in April with exceptional qualifications for his great office. Having absorbed the intricacies of the con= stitutional scheme as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee which reported on the massive India Bill, he had thus extended knowiy_gained, between 1926 and 1928, as Chairman of the Royal Commission on Indian Agrijeulture. No Viceroy before him—with the single exception of Lord Lawrenco—had anything approaching his previous personal, aequain= tance with the country itself and problems vitally "affecting its peoples. Since he assumed the Viceregal dignity Lord Linlithgow has made a marked impression on India, His direct personal interest in rural problems has somehow aught the people's imagination and ven the irreconcilable politicians have been known to say pleasant things of him. Young, as Viceroys of India go, Lord Linlithgow has managed to maintain the right note as the representative of the King-Emperor and yet dispense with certain time-honoured but often inconvenient ceremonial conventions in order to get down to essentials, It may be recalled that the Simon Commission, recognizing ' Federation as the ultimate: form of the All-India constitution, considered that Provincial Autonomy would have first to be established and the larger plan deferred until, the Indian States were ready to' agree'to it, The first Round Table Con-. ference on the constitutional proposals produced a surprise in the readiness of the Indian' Princes im mediately to agree to Federation. From that time onwards, although Provincial Autonomy would clearly have precedence, the possibility of proceeding direct to the provision of a federal constitution was accepted. Later on,. the idiosynerasies of the political ents of the India Bill in Eng. land itself, produced uncertainty in regard to the Princes' position and it was eventually decided that the introduction of Federation should be made to depend on the voluntary adherence of Indian States representing not less than 50 er cent. of the total population of the territory covered by "Indian India" as "distinct from British India to Which Provincial Autonomy is now to be applied. Even then on the passing of the Act and right up to the time of Lord Linlithgow's departure for India, it was assumed that the actual adoption of Federation could not be contemplated for at least four or five years after the institution of Provincial Autonomy in April next. As will have been gathered from the special Calcutta despatch published yesterday, there has been another change in the attitude of the Indian States, Lord Lintithgow's pointed exposition of their responsibilities a short time after his arrival was most effective and It became apparent at once that some of the Princes were impressed by the danger of allowing provin-dally autonomized British India to develop its constitutions too far in advance of the yet to be formed Federal Government, This has Prompted Lord Linlithgow to send special emissaries of high official rank to the Durbars of the various States in order ta explain the provisions of the Instrument of Accession drafted for the purpose of signalizing a State's adherence to the Federation and" generally answer questions which may be troubling Their Highnesses in facing the plunge into a definite con-
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Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.