1. In My Royal Proclamation of December, 1919, I gave earnest of My affectionate care and regard for the Ruling Princes and Chiefs of the Indian States by signifying My assent to the establishment of a Chamber of Princes. During the year that has since passed My Viceroy and many of the Princes themselves have been engaged in framing for My approval a constitution for the Chamber and the rules and regulations necessary to ensure the smooth and efficient performance of its important functions.

This work is now complete, and it remains for Me to take the final steps to bring the Chamber into being, in the confident hope that the united counsels of the Princes and Rulers, assembled in formal conclave, will be fruitful of lasting good both to themselves and their subjects, and by advancing the interests that are common to their territories and to British India, will benefit My Empire as a whole. It is in this hope that I have charged My revered and beloved Uncle, His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, to perform on My behalf the ceremony of the inauguration of the Chamber of Princes.

2. It is My firm belief that a future full of great and beneficent activities lies before the Chamber thus established. To the Princes, long versed in the arts of government and statesmanship, it will open still wider fields of Imperial Service. It will afford them opportunities, of which, I am convinced, they will be prompt to avail themselves, of comparing experience, interchanging ideas, and framing mature and balanced conclusions on matters of common interest. Nor will less advantage accrue to My Viceroy and the officers serving under him,

to whom the prudent counsels and considered advice of the Chamber cannot fail to be of the greatest assistance. The problems of the future must be faced in a spirit of co-operation and mutual trust.

It is in this spirit that I summon the Princes of India to a larger share in My Councils. I do so in full reliance upon their devotion to My Throne and Person, proved as it has been both in long years of peace and in the terrible ordeal of the Great War, and in the confident anticipation that by this means the bonds of mutual understanding will be strengthened and the growing identity of interest between the Indian States and the rest of My Empire will be fostered and developed.

3. In My former Proclamation I repeated the assurance, given on many occasions by My Royal predecessors and Myself, of My determination ever to maintain unimpaired the privileges, rights, and dignities of the Princes of India. The Princes may rest assured that this pledge remains inviolate and inviolable. I now authorize My Viceroy to publish the terms of the Constitution of the new Chamber.

My Viceroy will take its counsel freely in matters relating to the territories of the Indian States generally, and in matters that affect those territories jointly with British India, or with the rest of My Empire. It will have no concern with the internal affairs of individual States or their Rulers or with the relations of Individual States to My Government, while the existing rights of the States and their freedom of action will be in no way prejudiced or impaired. It is My earnest hope that the Princes of India will take regular part in

the deliberations of the Chamber; but attendance will be a matter of choice, not of constraint. There will be no obligation upon any member to record his opinion, by vote or otherwise, upon any question that may come under discussion; and it is further My desire that, at the discretion of My Viceroy, an opportunity shall be given to any Prince who has not taken a part in the deliberations of the Chamber to record his views on any question that the Chamber has had under its consideration.

4. I pray that the blessing of Divine Providence may rest upon the labours of the Chamber; that its deliberations may be inspired by true wisdom and moderation; and that it may seek and find its best reward in promoting the general weal and in increasing the strength and unity of the mighty Empire over which I have been called upon to rule.

16. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught's Address to the Indian Assembly on its Inauguration, 9 February 1921

Your Excellency and Gentlemen of the Indian Legislature,

I am the bearer of a message from His Majesty the King-Emperor. It is this:

As you know, it had been the intention of His Majesty to send the Prince of Wales, the heir to the throne, with His greetings and His authority to open the chambers of the new Indian Legislature. Events did not permit of his coming, and I received His Majesty's commands to perform these functions on His behalf. In me the King selected the eldest member of the Royal house, and the only surviving son of Queen Victoria, whose love and care for

India will ever live in its people's memory. I have myself a deep affection for India, having served it for years and made many friends among its Princes and leaders. It is thus with no common pleasure that I am here, to receive you on this memorable occasion.

Throughout the centuries Delhi has witnessed the pomp and ceremony of many historic assemblages. Two at least of these are remembered by most of you. Twenty years ago I took part in that brilliant concourse which celebrated the accession of my late brother, King Edward the Seventh. Nine years later, amid circumstances of unforgettable splendour, King George the Fifth and his Queen received in person the homage of the Princes and people of India. Our ceremony to-day may lack the colour and romance of the gatherings I have mentioned though it does not yield to them in the sincerity of its loyalty. But it strikes a new and a different note; it marks the awakening of a great nation to the power of its nationhood.

In the annals of the world there is not, so far as I know, an exact parallel for the constitutional change which this function initiates; there is certainly no parallel for the method of that change. Political freedom has often been won by revolution, by tumult, by civil war, as the price of peace and public safety. How rarely has it been the free gift of one people to another, in response to a growing wish for greater liberty, and to growing evidence of fitness for its enjoyment. Such, however, is the position of India to-day; and I congratulate most warmly those of you, old in the service of your motherland, who have striven, through good report and ill, for the first instal

ment of that gift, and to prove India worthy of it. I trust that you, and those who take up your mantles after you will move faithfully and steadfastly along the road which is opened to-day.

When India became a Dependency of the British Crown she passed under British guardianship, which has laboured with glorious results to protect India from the consequences of her own history at home, and from the complications of international pressure abroad. Autocratic, however, as was the Government then inaugurated, it was based on principles laid down by Her late Majesty Queen Victoria in that proclamation of 1858, of which the keynote is contained in the following passage: In their prosperity will be our strength; in their contentment our security, and in their gratitude our best reward.' And, though there have been occasions on which the tranquillity of this great country has been endangered by disturbances and disorders, which have necessitated the use of military force, speaking on behalf of His Majesty and with the assent of His Government, I repudiate in the most emphatic manner the idea that the administration of India has been, or ever can be, based on principles of force or terrorism.

All governments are liable to be confronted with situations which can be dealt with only by measures outside the ordinary law; but the employment of such measures is subject to clear and definite limitations; and His Majesty's Government have always insisted, and will always insist, on the observance of these limitations as jealously in the case of India as in that of England herself.

As His Excellency the Viceroy has observed, the principle of autocracy has been abandoned. Its