z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-10.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 755
EVIDENCE : RIGHT HON. SIR SAMUEL HOARE AND OTHERS 755
particularly for those who are really interested in setting up an AllIndia Federation, to concentrate upon setting up some kind of provisional government upon the assumption either that Federation is never coming into existence, or that Federation is only coming into existence in the very indefinite future. I believe myself that Members of the Committee and Indian Delegates who make proposals of that kind, although they do not wish the result of their proposals to be in the least what it will be, are really putting Federation further and further into the distance. I only go on repeating my own opinion, and I must rely upon my British and Indian friends to see that time after time it is not misrepresented by our enemies outside.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: May I pursue this a little further. Do you think Federation is more important, or responsibility is more important ?
- Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru : Or neither ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: I do not see the point of Dr. Ambedkar’s question.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : My point is this : If you are not prepared to consider any alternative for a transitional period the conclusion is that there can be no responsibility unless there is Federation ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Really now Dr. Ambedkar is raising issues that we have been discussing for three years. For three years we have assumed in every discussion we have had that these proposals are based upon a foundation of All-India Federation, and I am not prepared today, after three years of these discussions, to reopen this question.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: It is true. I do not want to pursue the matter. I am only suggesting an alternative for your consideration. I have two more questions to ask, but I do not know whether they will be within the ambit of the topic we are discussing. One is in relation to the qualifications of candidates for the Federal Upper Chamber.
Archbishop of Canterbury: I think that would more properly come under franchise, would it not ?
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I would like to ask a question or two about financial safeguards.
Archbishop of Canterbury: I think that clearly comes within finance.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I want to ask a question or two about defence. You remember that the Sub-Committee on Defence in its report recommended that there should be a Military Council. I do not find any proposal in the White Paper dealing with that ?
Archbishop of Canterbury: For the very good reason that we do not think that is a constitutional proposal. It is an administrative proposal.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Are you going to have it?
Archbishop of Canterbury: I have always myself been in favour of having in India something in the nature of the Committee of Imperial Defence here. I believe in actual practice it will be found to be necessary. It is very important to bring not only the Defence Ministers, and the Defence officials, in touch with Defence problems, but now that