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772 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
upon that subject before the clause is drafted. I find exactly the same expression “existing and accruing rights” used in the South African Constitution of 1909, and I wonder whether it would not be possible for Your Lordship and the Secretary of State to obtain the Memorandum from the Dominions Office to find out exactly how that clause has been acted upon, and interpreted by the South African Government ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: I will certainly look into that suggestion. In any case, it is a question which we must deal with when we come to the Services. It is not quite the same question though that Sir Purshotamdas put to us.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: No ; that is why I said I did not want to raise any controversy. I am simply asking for information as to whether that would not be possible as a sort of comparative view ?
Sir Samuel Hoare : Yes.
†8633. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I would like to ask one question about the statement made by Sir Akbar Hydari on the application of paragraph 141. You said yesterday, Secretary of State, in making your brief observations on that statement that you were glad that the States bad accepted, at a certain point, to bear the burden of the Federal Government ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Yes.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: What I would like to know is this — you can give the answer now, or, if you like to refer to it later I have no objection— whether you agree that the stage which has been described by Sir Akbar Hydari is the stage at which the States should begin to bear the burden of the Federation ? He has, as you know, described certain stages through which the Federal finance must go before the States could be called upon to bear their share ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Yes.
- Sir Akbar Hydari: Additional burden ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: There are really three burdens. There was first of all the burden of indirect taxation that they undertake from the start; secondly, there was the burden of the Corporation Tax, or the equivalent of the Corporation Tax that they undertake after a definite terms of years ; and, thirdly, there was the surtax that they undertake in the event of an emergency.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I thought he laid down certain conditions ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: He laid down certain conditions — Sir Akbar will correct me if I am wrong for the third of these burdens, namely, the surtax.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I wanted to know whether you agree that those were the appropriate conditions under which the Federation will resolve to surcharge ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: I think so. I do not want to tie myself down to the exact words, but I think, generally, that seems to me to be a fair basis of an arrangement.
†Minutes of Evidence, Vol. II-B, 28th July 1933, pp. 1018-20.