Coll 1/49 'Aden. Administration and control: changes consequent on Indian constitutional reforms; transfer to HMG' [‎450r] (908/968)

ON INDIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
17
20° Novembns, 19dd.J Memorandum by the
Secretary of State for India.
[Continued.
not a matter in which the Secretary of State can interfere as he is
precluded from doing so by the Fiscal Convention. If Aden is’ separated
it will be for the Indian Legislature of the future to decide what terms
should be accorded to salt from Aden. The concern shown in the recent
debates in the Indian Legislature for the commercial and other interests of
Indians at Aden seems to give some ground for hoping that, as I sincerely
trust may be the case, the Legislature would not be unresponsive to any
appeal on behalf of the Aden salt manufacturers.
Misunderstanding of the assurances in the statement of ISth June.
!2. The conditions contemplated by His Majesty’s Government in the
statement of 19th June m the event of transfer are in my view -onerous
and ought to meet any reasonable apprehensions on the part of the Indian
interests concerned. The speeches in the Legislature showed that there
are certain misunderstandings as to the meaning of these conditions Those
regarding the contribution and the promise that there would be no racial
discrimination have been dealt with above. Assurance No 2 that a right
of appeal would continue to lie to the Bombay High Court, has been
included among the assurances in the interests of Aden litigants 4n
undue amount of attention has, I think, been directed to the qualified
form of assurances 3 (maintenance of the free port) and 4 (maintenance
of the present standard of administration without imposing additional taxa
tion). As regards 3, I would emphasise, what is stated in the assurance,
that from the point of view of His Majesty’s Government themselves the
abandonment of the policy of a free port would clearly in existing economic
conditions be financially unsound, since the prosperity of Aden depends
largely on its transit trade. The assurance that the policy would be main
tained was only qualified by the words <l unless some radical change in the
present economic situation should take place.” I think that critics of this
qualification may have overlooked the word “ radical.” Assurance No. 4
“not to impose any additional taxation ” was qualified by the words
“ unless such a course became, in His Majesty’s Government’s opinion,
absolutely necessary.” This is an obviously necessary qualification, as His
Majesty’s Government could not bind themselves in such a matter for ever.
The wording of assurance No. 5, “ A proportion of Indian service adminis
trative personnel would be retained in Aden service for some years after
transfer took place,” has been misunderstood. The meaning was that a
proportion of the administrative personnel at Aden would continue to
tepad to the Indian Service for some years. In the Indian Legislature it
has been interpreted to mean that only a proportion of the Indians at
present serving among the administrative personnel would be retained for
some years, and that the remainder would be sent away. In order to make
more explicit the meaning of this assurance, I may say that His Majesty’s
Government are prepared to give an assurance that, in the event of the
transfer of Aden, all Indian administrative personnel serving in Aden at
the time of transfer would be retained on the terms of service under which
they were then serving, subject only to modification by mutual consent;
when vacancies occurred, Indians would remain eligible for appointment
(though there would be a gradual substitution of Colonial Service officers);
it would be understood that all newcomers to the Aden Service would be
appointed on definite terms to be agreed upon in each case, and would
have no claim to Indian conditions of service, unless these w T ere specially
imported into their agreements or letters of appointment.