17 JULY 1947, Page 16

THE INDIAN STATES

SIR,—Sir T. Vijayaraghavacharya asks Sir William Barton whether Canada would allow Quebec to set up as a separate Dominion seceding from the rest of the Dominion of Canada, or Australia allow Tasmania to secede from the Commonwealth of Australia and start its career afresh es an independent member of the British Commonwealth. There is no analogy between his hypothetical case and that of the Indian States. Quebec and Tasmania are units of a Federation which they entered voluntarily. The Indian States are not units of a Federated India, so that there can be no question of " secession." For a few fleeting moments after the passing of the 1935 Act there seemed a possibility that they might be. If that possibility had been realised, the outlook for India would be far

happier than it is today.—Yours, &c., - FRANK NOYCE. Grayshott House, Hinsihead, Surrey.