On Thursday, April 4th, Sir John Siknon addressed in Delhi
a fireWell meeting of the Provincial *COMmittees who have been co-ope. rating' with the Statutory .ccp, mission on Indian Reforms; It is said that Sir John Simon, without committing the Commission, threw out a hint that the Canadian Conititution might be taken as a model for India in certain respects. This points to a strong Central Government with the promise of great local variety. About a hundred years ago Elphin- stone, if we remember our history rightly, proposed that the future administration of India should be by a Central Government which held in -its hands all the means of public safety. ; bit that with this conditiOn" the Provinces should be allowed to conduct their own affairs more or less as they plesiiied. There is an attractive simplicity about this proposal, but .we doubt whether it would really be a solution. Mr. Gandhi and his non- co-operators would probably be intensely opposed to it because they know perfectly well that there is no hope of peace so long as racial, and particularly religious, animosities are allowed full scope to express themselves. With complete Provincial autonomy, they would doubtless argue, there would be no general standard- for India ; the animosities would be positively nourished by the excitement of local antagonisms.
• * * a
Previous page
