Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/483

Rh

from legislating on certain specified subjects except with the pre- vious sanction of the governor-general. To the creation of a second chamber and the possibility that the Government may be placed in a minority in either chamber are due certain provisions in the Act of 1919 which are not in the former Act. If the Chambers fail to agree to a bill within a period of six months from its passage by one Chamber the governor-general may refer it to a joint sitting of both Chambers. He may stop proceedings on a bill or prevent its introduction by certifying that it affects the safety or tranquillity of the country. He may pass a bill on his own responsibility which the Legislature has refused to pass, on certifying that its passage is essential for the safety, tranquillity or interests of British India or any part thereof. Any such Act is laid before Parliament and has no effect until it has received His Majesty's assent. TJie budget procedure prescribed by the Act of 1919 is novel and is an extension of the financial powers hitherto enjoyed by the Legislature. The Indian Councils Act of 1909 authorized the making of rules permit- ting the discussion in the Legislative Council of the annual financial statement. Under these rules resolutions might be moved and adopted concerning entries in the statement, but no vote was taken on the estimates and resolutions operated merely as recommenda- tions. The Act of 1919 requires that the proposals of the Governor- General in Council for the appropriation of revenue or moneys (cer- tain specified heads of expenditure excepted) shall be submitted to the vote of the Legislative Assembly in the form of demands for grants. The Legislative Assembly may assent or refuse its assent to any demand or may reduce the amount referred to in any demand by a reduction of the whole grant. But this formidable power is subject to limitations. The governor-general may restore a demand which the Legislative Assembly has refused to grant, by declaring that it is essential to the discharge of his responsibilities. Further the excepted heads of expenditure which are not submitted to the vote of the assembly include such important items as political and military charges and the salaries and pensions of certain classes of public servants, and constitute a large part of the budget. Of this arrangement, as also of the power given to the governor-general to pass a law which the Legislature has refused to accept, it is sufficient to say that they are solutions recommended by the Joint Select Committee of the dilemma raised by the coexistence of an irre- movable executive and elected Legislature, deriving their respective authority from different sources. They are not a final adjustment of forces but an expedient devised for a transitory stage of political development. The Act makes some minor changes in the number and in the tenure of office of members of the Secretary of State's Council and in the procedure of the India Office, but leaves the func- tions and constitution of the Council unaltered. A long-standing grievance is remedied by a provision placing the salary of the Secre- tary of State on the estimates and by an arrangement with the Treasury whereby the expenses of the Council of India and the India Office other than " agency " charges will henceforth be borne by the British Exchequer. By " agency " is meant work such as the purchase of stores, the engagement of persons for service in India, the payment of pay and pensions of Indian officers, in which the India Office acts as the agent of the Indian Government.

High Commissioner for India. The Act authorizes the ap- pointment of a high commissioner for India who will take over the agency business of the India Office with the necessary establishment, and transact it in direct communication with, and at the charge of, the Government of India. When this transfer has taken place the functions of the India Office will be purely administrative, and confined to those which strictly arise out of the duties of supervision, direction and control placed by Parliament upon the Secretary of State in Indian affairs.

Restriction of Secretary of State's Powers. As a corollary to the introduction of the elements of responsible government into Indian administration the Act empowers the Secretary of State in Council to divest himself by rule, to such extent as he may specify, of his statutory powers of supervision and control over Indian affairs, and thereby, to like extent, of his responsibility to Parliament. In exercise of this power he has made a statutory rule which has the effect of releasing the administration of " transferred " subjects from his supervision and control, except in certain specified circumstances, such as, where Imperial interests or the interests of the Government of India are affected. Ordinarily he will not interfere, and will not be expected by Parliament to interfere, in subjects administered by members. This may be illustrated by a concrete instance. The administra- tion of the liquor and drugs excise is a transferred subject. In the past the Secretary of State has constantly been called upon to intervene in respect of the district or provincial management of liquor shops and correct alleged abuses. In future his reply will be that the administration of this subject rests with the ministers

responsible to the provincial Legislative Council, and that he is by rule precluded from interfering, unless it can be shown that the matter falls under one or other of the specified exceptions. A considerable area of Indian administration has in this way now been removed from the purview of Parliament. The rule-making power conferred by the Act extends in terms to central and pro- vincial subjects as well as to transferred subjects. But the anxiety of Parliament to limit the exercise of the power to transferred subjects is shown by the provision that no rule applying to subjects other than transferred may be made until the draft has been approved by resolution of both Houses of Parliament. This is in consonance with the opinion of the Joint Select Committee that any relaxation of parliamentary control over that part of Indian administration which is still retained by the Governor-General in Counft and the official Government in the provinces should come about by the growth of a convention and is not a suitable subject of rules. .

Position of Public Services. Two or three other matters dealt with in the Act of 1919 may be briefly noticed. The transfer of a considerable portion of Indian administration to ministers responsible to a Legislature, for the most part elected, necessarily affects the position of the public services and might, in the absence of statutory safeguards, injuriously affect their rights and privileges. The Act contains provisions securing to civil servants appointed by the Secretary of State (to which category the European services belong) protection against wrongful treatment or dismissal, and the enjoyment of pensionary rights granted to them on their appointment. The Act also establishes a Public Service Commission, with a chairman appointed by the Secretary of State in Council, to superintend the recruitment and to control the public services in India, creates the office of auditor-general and sets up a financial authority with adequate powers in each province.

Statutory Commission. Lastly, the Act provides for the appointment of a Statutory Commission at the expiration of ten years to inquire into the working of the system of government, the growth of education, and the development of representative institutions in British India, and to report as to whether and to what extent it is desirable to establish the principle of responsi- ble government, or to extend, modify or restrict the degree of responsible government then existing therein, including the question whether the establishment of second chambers in the local Legislatures is or is not desirable.

This provision sufficiently indicates the transitional and evolutionary character of the new constitutions set up in India. The progressive realization of responsible government has been declared the aim of British policy in India. If, as was announced, this policy can be carried out only by successive stages, and if the British Government and the Indian Government must be the judges of the time and measure of each advance, inquiry by a commission is a necessary measure. The undertaking given in the Act that inquiry shall be made ten years hence should disarm suspicions as to the intentions of Parliament and the British Government, and give assurance to honest workers in India. Impatient idealists may think the interval too long and may seek to abridge it. But the present advance means a long stride in an unmapped and difficult country, and ten years is as nothing in the growth of a nation. The interval will give opportunity for observation and testing such as were denied to the Morley- Minto reforms. The latter after barely four years' working were engulfed in the war and the inrush of new ideas. It will also give time for elementary education to become more general and for the electorates to comprehend the meaning and consequences of representative and responsible government.

Subsidiary Administrative Reforms. The constitutional changes sanctioned by Parliament are to be supplemented in two directions by administrative measures which the Government of India has undertaken. They propose in the first place to revivify local self- government. Excluding the great presidency corporations, which are a class by themselves, Indian municipalities are largely under official guidance and control. The nominated element in the boards is large, and the chairman is often one of the district officials. " With the best intentions," say the authors of the Montagu-Chelmsford