Statement by Desmond FitzGerald to the 1923 Imperial Conference

Prime Minister, on our country I do not need to say we have no racial distinctions at all. Indians in Ireland have the same position as Englishmen or South Africans. It seems to me that this matter falls more or less into two classes. There are the Indians in the Dominions and the Indians in the Colonies and mandated territories etc. Now we recognise the Dominions as independent Sovereign countries, having a perfect right to look after their own affairs and we really have no right to interfere there, and in the mandated territories and protectorates they are controlled by the British Government and we have no responsibility. So all that I can do really is to give an opinion. We have no responsibility in the matter; but, if we had responsibility, we should have to protest very strongly against any racial distinctions being made. We, who are not Anglo-Saxons, have suffered a good deal in the past from being treated as an inferior race. Putting myself in the position of an Indian, I do not think that the Indian representatives here are of an equality with us, because they are not really here in a representative capacity; they are not really sent by an independent Indian Government, and they cannot really be regarded as equal with the rest of us. If I were an Indian, putting myself in their position, I would recognise that this hypersensitiveness that they have about their treatment outside of India arises really from the fact that they have not, so far, reached the degree of self-government that the rest of us have reached. With regard to Indians in the Protectorates and so on, the Government which is primarily responsible for those places being the Government which is also responsible for India - it seems to us unjust that there should be any distinction drawn between Indians and other British subjects in those places. At the same time it seems to me that the only solution of this trouble, which comes from racial sensitiveness, is for Indians to be in a position to make real reciprocal arrangements and to make bargain for bargain. The only way that this Indian trouble is really going to be solved is for that progress towards self-government - whatever form of selfgovernment they consider suitable for themselves - for that progress to be hastened with all speed so as to avoid what Sir Tej and the Maharajah indicated - revolutionary methods taking the place of evolutionary methods. We in our country must necessarily sympathise whole-heartedly with the Indians both in their protests against their inferior race treatment and in their feelings as to the freedom of their country. We also recognise quite plainly here that we have no right to dictate to the other Dominions as to what they do in their own areas. That is all I have to say, Prime Minister.