z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-10.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 757
EVIDENCE : RIGHT HON. SIR SAMUEL HOARE AND OTHERS 757
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Paragraph 6 does not say how his appointment is going to be made — on whose advice ?
Sir Samuel Hoare : By the Crown.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: On whose advice ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: The appointment is made by the Government here.
- Sir Austen Chamberlain: By His Majesty acting on the advice of Ministers at home ?
Sir Samuel Hoare : Yes.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I look up the other day the Debates in the Legislative Assembly dated the 17th February, 1921, and Sir Godfrey Fell described the circumstances under which the Commander-in-Chief was appointed in these terms : “The appointment of the Commander-in-Chief is made by His Majesty the King on the advice of the Cabinet, and the Cabinet naturally turns to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the highest military authority in the British Empire, for advice.” So the position is that the Commander-in-Chief under the present law or practice is appointed by the Cabinet on the advice of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: He is not appointed by the Cabinet; he is appointed by the Crown, on the advice of the Prime Minister, or whatever it may be—the Secretary of State for India here.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: The point I want to put to you is this : Do you think this practice is consistent with the new sort of Government we are contemplating, considering that Defence is to be largely a responsibility of the Indian people and the Indian Legislatures ?
Sir Samuel Hoare : I think it is quite inevitable with Defence a Reserved Department.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But it is also going to be a responsibility of the Indian people and the Indian Legislatures. How is the appointment of an important officer who is going to be in charge of a very important Department under the new Government, who is appointed not on the advice of the Secretary of State, not on the advice of the Governor-General, but on the advice of the Cabinet in consultation with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, compatible with a Government whose Defence will be a responsibility of the Indian people ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Surely, if Defence is a Reserved Department the Government to whom those Reserved Departments are responsible should make the appointment.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I can understand the Viceroy making this appointment; I can understand the Secretary of State making the appointment ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: That is what it comes to.
†7125. Marquess of Salisbury: Your plan, as I understand (or I ought
†Minutes of Evidence, Vol. II-B, 20th July 1933, pp. 813-15.