while visiting in India in 1912 he had written an article for an English review saying that
the Indian Nationalist movement "was essentially healthy, for it was a movement for
political virtue and self-respect," although the Indian Civil Servant with whom he was
staying said that Indian Nationalism was sedition. Lord Lothian implied that he had not
changed his opinion twenty years later. In the Lower House the question came to a vote,
which the government easily carried by 369 to 43. In the majority were Leopold Amery,
John J. Astor, John Buchan, Austen Chamberlain, Viscount Cranborne, Samuel Hoare,
W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, Lord Eustace Percy, John Simon, and D. B. Somervell. In the
minority were Churchill, George Balfour, and Viscount Wolmer.
Practically the same persons appeared on the same sides in the discussion regarding
the White Paper of 1933. This document, which embodied the government's suggestions
for a bill on Indian constitutional reform, was defended by various members of the
Milner Group outside of Parliament, and anonymously in
wrote a preface to John Thompson's India:
defended the extension of responsible government to India, saying, "We cannot exclude
her from sharing in what we ourselves regard as the best." Samuel Hoare defended it in a
letter to his constituents at Chelsea. Malcolm Hailey defended it before the Royal Empire
Society Summer School at Oxford, in a speech afterwards published in
return to England to help the government put through its bill. During the long period
required to accomplish this, Samuel Hoare, who as Secretary of State for India was the
official government spokesman on the subject, had Hailey constantly with him as his
chief adviser and support. It was this support that permitted Hoare, whose knowledge of
India was definitely limited, to conduct his astounding campaign for the Act of 1935.
The White Paper of 1933 was presented to a Joint Select Committee of both Houses. It
was publicly stated as a natural action on the part of the government that this committee
be packed with supporters of the bill. For this reason Churchill, George Balfour, and Lord
Wolmer refused to serve on it, although Josiah Wedgwood, a Labour Member who
opposed the bill, asked to be put on the committee because it was packed.
The Joint Select Committee, as we have seen, had thirty-two members, of whom at
least twelve were from the Cecil Bloc and Milner Group and supported the bill. Four
were from the inner circles of the Milner Group. The chief witnesses were Sir Samuel
Hoare; who gave testimony for twenty days; Sir Michael O'Dwyer, who gave testimony
for four days; and Winston Churchill, who gave testimony for three days. The chief
witness was thus Hoare, who answered 5594 questions from the committee. At all times
Hoare had Malcolm Hailey at his side for advice.
The fashion in which the government conducted the Joint Select Committee aroused a
good deal of unfavorable comment. Lord Rankeillour in the House of Lords criticized
this, especially the fashion in which Hoare used his position to push his point of view and
to influence the evidence which the committee received from other witnesses. He
concluded: "This Committee was not a judicial body, and its conclusions are vitiated
thereby. You may say that on their merits they have produced a good or a bad Report, but
what you cannot say is that the Report is the judicial finding of unbiased or impartial
minds." As a result of such complaints, the House of Commons Committee on Privilege
investigated the conduct of the Joint Select Committee. It found that Hoare's actions
toward witnesses and in regard to documentary evidence could be brought within the
scope of the Standing Orders of the House if a distinction were made between judicial
committees and non-judicial committees and between witnesses giving facts and giving
opinions. These distinctions made it possible to acquit Sir Samuel of any violation of
privilege, but aroused such criticism that a Select Committee on Witnesses was formed to
examine the rules for dealing with witnesses. In its report, on 4 June 1935, this Select
Committee rejected the validity of the distinctions between judicial and non-judicial and
between fact and opinion made by the Committee on Privilege, and recommended that
the Standing Rules be amended to forbid any tampering with documents that had been
received by a committee. The final result was a formal acquittal, but a moral
condemnation, of Hoare's actions in regard to the Joint Select Committee on the
Government of India.
The report of the Joint Select Committee was accepted by nineteen out of its thirty-
two members. Nine voted against it (five Conservative and four Labour Members). A
motion to accept the report and ask the government to proceed to draw up a bill based on