August Offer
regarding
Statement
by the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, on the expansion of
the Governor-General's Executive Council and the establishment of a War
Advisory Council,
Last October His Majesty's Government
again made it clear that Dominion Status was their objective for
It is clear that the earlier differences
which had prevented the achievement of national unity remain unbridged. Deeply as His Majesty's Government regret this, they do not feel that they should any longer, because
of these differences, postpone the expansion of the Governor-General's Council,
and the establishment of a body which will more closely associate Indian public
opinion with the conduct of the war by the Central Government. They have
authorized me accordingly to invite a certain number of representative Indians
to join my Executive Council. They have authorized me further to establish a
War Advisory Council, which would meet at regular intervals and which would
contain representatives of the Indian States, and of other interests in the
national life of India as a whole.
The conversations which have taken place,
and the resolutions of the bodies which I have just mentioned, make it clear,
however, that there is still in certain quarters doubt as to the intentions of
His Majesty's Government for the constitutional future of India, and that there
is doubt too, as to whether the position of Minorities, whether political or
religions, is sufficiently safeguarded in relation to any constitutional change
by the assurance already given. These are the two main points that have
emerged. On those two points His Majesty's Government now desire me to make
their position clear.
The first is as to the position of
Minorities in relation to any future constitutional scheme. It has already been
made clear that my declaration of last Octob
er does not exclude examination of any
part either of the Act of 1935 or of the policy and plans on which it is based.
His Majesty’s Government's concern that full weight should be given to the
views of the Minorities in any revision has also been brought out. That remains
the position of His Majesty's Government. It goes without saying that they
could not contemplate the transfer of their present responsibilities for the
peace and welfare of
The second point of general interest is the
machinery for building within the British Commonwealth of Nations a new
constitutional scheme when the time comes. There has been very strong
insistence that the framing of that scheme should be primarily the
responsibility of Indians themselves, and should originate from Indian
conceptions of the social, economic and political structure of Indian life. His
Majesty's Government are in sympathy with that desire,
and wish to see it given the fullest practical expression subject to the due fulfilment of the obligations which
It is clear that a moment when the
Commonwealth is engaged in a struggle for existence is not one in which
fundamental constitutional issues can be decisively resolved. But His Majesty's
Government authorize me to declare that they will most readily assent to the
setting up after the conclusion of the war with the least possible delay of a
body representative of the principal elements in India's national life in order
to devise the framework of the new Constitution and they will lend every aid in
their power to hasten decisions on all relevant matters to the utmost degree.
Meanwhile they will welcome and promote in
any way possible every sincere and practical step that may be taken by
representative Indians themselves to reach a basis of friendly agreement,
firstly, on the form Which the post-war representative body should take and the
methods by which it should arrive at its conclusions, and secondly upon the
Principles and outlines of the Constitution itself.