Coll 1/49 'Aden. Administration and control: changes consequent on Indian constitutional reforms; transfer to HMG' [448v] (905/968)
The record is made up of 1 volume (480 folios). It was created in 12 Oct 1933-3 Jun 1937. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
RECOEDS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE
20° Novembris , 1933.] Memorandum by the
Secretary of State for India.
[Continued.
desirability of the transfer of Aden and the conditions and assurances
which His Majesty’s Government are prepared to give if transfer takes
place. Since then opportunity has been given, as promised, for full
discussion in both Chambers of the Indian Legislature, and steps have
been taken to elicit the wishes of the Arab population of Aden itself.
(iv) Thus we now have available all the material required for a full
consideration of the question. For my own part I have carefully
studied the debates in the Legislature and need hardly say that I
attach great weight to the views expressed therein, but I have also
had to consider most anxiously the whole question in the light of all
the facts, the various and extensive interests involved, and the views
expressed in various quarters.
Difficulty of placing civil administration under Indian Federal Government.
5 The debates in the Indian Legislature indicate that the true nature
of the difficulties of fitting Aden into the proposed Indian Federation may
not have been fully appreciated. The only difficulty mentioned in the
debates was the fact that Aden is now a Chief Commissioner’s Province
directly under the Government of India, and members naturally asked
why this difficulty could not be met by retlurning Aden to the Government
of Bombay and making it again part of the Bombay
Presidency
The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent.
. It is
therefore desirable that I should explain more fully the underlying reasons
for the assertions in my statement of 19th June, that Aden “ would not
naturally fit into the new Federation, that it is already to some extent
under Imperial control and that it is inseparable in practice from the Aden
Protectorate, which has already passed wholly out of Indian control.”
They are as follows.
It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make a clean sepa
ration between the Arab town of Aden and its Arab hinterland, the Aden
Protectorate. Similarly, it would be impracticable to effect a complete
divorce between the civil administration of the Settlement on the one hand
and the political and military control of the Protectorate on the other.
For manv prarposes the whole area forms a single whole. At present there
is a condominium, the civil administration of the Settlement being controlled
from Delhi the political control of the Protectorate and the defence of
both being’placed directly under His Majesty’s Government. Naturally
there are very great practical difficulties involved in a condominium of this
character. The only reason why it works efficiently in practice at all is
that in the last resort the decision of all questions arising vests in His
Majesty’s Government. This is so because the Government of India under
its present constitution is in the last resort subordinate to His Majesty s
Government. But when the Government of India becomes a Government in
which responsibility for the civil administration of Chief Commissioners
Provinces rests upon Ministers, the position will be entirely different and
the division of control, which is just workable at present, would become
entirely unworkable. This objection would not be removed, but on the con
trary would if anything be strengthened, if Aden were made a part of a
Governor’s Province under the new constitution. Furthermore, for defence
purposes it is obviously impossible to make a distinction between the Fro-
tectorate and the Settlement, and it is therefore essential that the defence
of the latter as well as of the former should continue to be a direct re
sponsibility of His Majesty’s Government. But a continuance of tne
present system, whereby defence vests in His Majesty’s Government in
respect of the Settlement as well as of the Protectorate, would become con
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About this item
- Content
The volume contains papers regarding the transfer of the civil administration of Aden from the Government of India to the Colonial Office, and the preparation of the Aden Colony Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. (1936), and 'Royal Sign Manual and Signet to the Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony of Aden (1937)'.
The volume is predominantly made up of correspondence between the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Political Department, the Colonial Office, the Aden Chief Commissioner (later Governor) Bernard Reilly, the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Legal Advisor's Department, and the Secretary of State for India. The volume also contains numerous heavily-annotated drafts of the Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. and the Royal Instructions, plus minutes of meetings held at the Colonial Office, and extracts from the Home Affairs Committee and the Joint Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform. Final drafts can be found at folios 13-20, in addition to copies of Reilly's inauguration speech (folios 25-28).
The correspondence covers a range of topics, including: Indian and Arab sentiment over the transfer; problems of condominion; the importance of Aden to Britain's imperial aims; representations from the Indian and Aden business communities; the maintenance of representation for Aden subjects at the Bombay High Court; Aden's free port status; questions of income tax and salt duty; the wording of the Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. and Royal Instructions; and a proposal to list the Kuria Muria Islands as a named dependency of Aden, comparable to Shaikh Othman, Imad and Hiswa, and Perim.
The volume includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 4).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (480 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in rough chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 480; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The fold-outs on f 147, f 158 and f 159 are A and B items which are attached to the folios in order to add additional information about the document.
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/1485
- Title
- Coll 1/49 'Aden. Administration and control: changes consequent on Indian constitutional reforms; transfer to HMG'
- Pages
- 441r:452v
- Author
- Joint Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform
- Usage terms
- Public Domain