Commonwealth of India Bill

IT is not surprising to learn that the Commonwealth of India Bill has already been accepted in principle at several public meetings both in Bombay and elsewhere. The principles of this Bill are for the most part common ground among all political parties in this country, among all who believe in dominion self-government as the goal of our political endeavour in the present conditions, and in peaceful constitutional agitation as the means by which that goal is to be attained. The most important of these principles is that India is to have such a Constitution that she may never again have to go to Westminster for anything she desires in the shape of political reform or progress. Practically, the only powers which for the present are to be withheld from the responsible part of the Government and reserved to the Viceroy as the representative of the British Government are as regards defence, and provision is made in the Bill for the automatic transfer of these powers to the responsible part of the Government without any further reference to the British Government or Parliament. There is to be a Defence Commission with a majority of Indians thereon, every five years, to be appointed by the Viceroy in consultation with the Cabinet, which is to recommend a minimum of non-votable expenditure for the defence forces and also report on the progress of the Indianisation of those forces. In case of disagreement, the Viceroy will have the power to secure the minimum which, in his opinion, is necessary for the defence forces, provided that no revenue of India is to be spent on any branch of the forces in which Indians are ineligible for holding commissioned ranks.

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