1FIFTH SCHEDULE. [s. 131(3)]

Provisions of this Act which may be repealed or alter

This schedule was substituted by Sch. I of the Government of India (Amendment) Act, 1916.

a These words were substituted for the words "Governor-General in Legislative Council " by Part II of Sch. II of the Government of India Act, 1919.

124(5) so far as it relates to persons Receiving presents. other than the Governor-General,

FROM THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS APPOINTED TO CONSIDER THE GOVERN

MENT OF INDIA BILL.

Ordered to Report

1. That the Committee have met and considered the said Bill and taken the evidence of a large number of witnesses, many of whom had come all the way from India for the purpose. A mass of telegrams and other communications has also been received. The list of witnesses and the telegrams have been printed as an appendix to the evidence. Written representations have not as a rule been printed. The Committee appreciate the advantage they have derived from being placed in full possession of the views of many persons who have given much thought to the political future of the country.

2. The Committee were not charged, as some have seemed to think, with the task of reporting on the state of India, or on the conduct of the administration in India, or even at large on the best form of government for India, but only with the duty of dealing with this Bill, which had been read a second time in the House of Commons, according to the wellknown forms of Parliamentary procedure and with the rules and conventions arising out of it.

3. In the declaration made by His Majesty's Government on the 20th August, 1917, there is enun

ciated the problem for which the Bill endeavours to provide a solution. It is to design the first stage in a measured progress towards responsible government. Any such stage, if it is to be a real advance, must, as the Committee conceive it, involve the creation of an electorate, and the bestowal of some share in the work and responsibilities of government on those whom the electorate chooses to represent its interests. In the present circumstances of India, the electorate must at the outset be small and administrative experience of its representatives must be limited. Before, therefore, the policy of His Majesty's Government can be fulfilled the electorate must grow, and practical experience in the conduct of public affairs must be enlarged. During this period the guardianship of the peace of India cannot be withdrawn from the care of the official agency which Parliament at present charges with the duties of the administration, and the Committee regard it to be an essential feature of the policy of His Majesty's Government that, except in so far as he is released from responsibility by the changes made under this Bill, the Governor-General-in-Council should remain in undisturbed responsibility to Parliament and fully equipped with the necessary powers to fulfil that responsibility. But from the beginning the people must be given an opportunity, and all political wisdom points to its being a generous opportunity, of learning the actual business of government and of

showing, by their conduct of it, to some future Parliament that the time has come for further extensions. of power.

4. In the opinion of the Committee the plan proposed by the Bill is conceived wholly in this spirit, and interprets the pronouncement of the 20th August, 1917, with scrupulous accuracy. It partitions the domain of provincial government into two fields, one of which is made over to ministers chosen from the elected members of the provincial legislature while the other remains under the administration of a Governor-in-Council. This scheme has evoked apprehensions which are not unnatural in view of its novelty. But the Committee, after the most careful consideration of all suggested alternatives are of opinion that it is the best way of giving effect to the spirit of the declared policy of His Majesty's Government. Its critics forget that the announcement spoke of a substantial step in the direction of the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government and not of the partial introduction of responsible government; and it is this distinction which justifies the method by which the Bill imposes responsibility, both on Ministers to the legislative council and on the members of the legislative council to their constituents, for the results of that part of the administration which is transferred to their charge.

5. Having weighed the evidence and informa