THE INDIAN PRINCES
[To the Editor of Tun SPECTATOR.] Sm,—The storm raised by certain die-bards in England— including some who have eaten the salt of India !—against the introduction of responsibility in the Government of India betrays a lamentable loss of sight of the fact that the introduction of responsibility in the Central Government is contingent upon the active participatioh of the great body of the Indian Princes in an All-India Federation. To belittle the difference which this factor makes to the situation is to distrust His Majesty's proven friends and allies. Indeed, the bold offer of the Princes to join an All-India Federation is a golden opportunity to Britain to carry out its professed mission in India peacefully and with the very minimum of risk. To distrust the Princes—with its inevitable reaction —would be to strike at the root of British connexion with India ; and to belittle the value of princely accession to the governance of India is to betray poor understanding of the position in India. If Britain cannot depend on the great Indian Princes to provide in the Intim All-India Government the necessary elements of loyalty, stability, moderation and constructive patriotism and—as the largest single party in the Federal Legislature—effectively to eon- solidate, in the perpetual interests of their Order, Country and the Empire, the mute but enormous conservative forces of their essentially conservative country, it is futile to look • at sheer brute force to stem the powerful tide of moral awakening in India.
It is too late in the day to thwart the legitimate political aspirations of India and to withdraw the pledges given to her. Do it, and as sure as day India shall be a lost dominion. On the contrary, trust India and above all trust the Indian Princes—with their inherent loyalty on the one hand, and their accumulated experience of administration of a thousand years and more, peculiar to and in harmony with India's cultural ideals, on the other—and India shall for ever be, the most jealous of all His Majesty's Dominions to preserve her partnership in the great British Empire.
Is it too much to hope that the momentous meeting of the Conservative Party on June 28th will unequivocally and finally vindicate the wisdom of its great leaders, of His Majesty's Government and of the Government of India, and reaffirm its trust in the Princes and people of India ? Let those so-called Conservatives who are bent upon splitting the ranks of their great party on such an unrighteous issue remember the warning of one of the greatest champions of Conservatism in England, "If mere opposition to change gains possession of the Conservative Party, the day of triumphant revolution will have dawned ! "—I am, Sir, &c.,
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