The Assembly and Lee report

WE cannot say that either the Assembly or the country has gained anything by the passing of a resolution by the former at its meeting on Monday, adjourning the discussion on the Lee Commission’s report till the September session. The ground on which the Government accepted the proposal for adjournment and announced its decision not to take any action on the report till the matter had been discussed by the House was specifically stated by both the Home Member and the Finance Member. “I am prepared,” said the former, “to give on behalf of the Government of India and the Secretary of State a pledge that no decision on any question of principle or policy shall be arrived at till this House has had an opportunity in the September session of examining this report, but on the understanding that the House passes Sir Sivaswami’s resolution substantially in the terms of that resolution.” The most important part of this so-called pledge is, of course, the proviso, and those Members who received the first part of the announcement with applause must have been speedily disillusioned as they listened to this part. For what did it amount to? Only this that the Government should be at liberty to give retrospective effect to any decision it might arrive at from April 1, 1924. As these decisions were only to follow the discussion in the House and were not in any sense and to any extent to be necessarily determined by that discussion, it is easy to see that the Services ran no risk whatever and lost absolutely nothing by the Home Member’s pledge.