My Lords, I ask leave to introduce a Bill to amend the provisions of the Government of India Act by exempting proposals for expenditure upon certain salaries, pensions, and other payments from submission to Indian Legislatures and to enable Rules made under the said Act relating to the Civil Services of the Crown in India to be dispensed with or relaxed in certain cases; and to move that it be read a first time.

My Lords, I think it would be convenient that I should mention that it is important to get this Bill through all its stages next week, in order that, if possible, the Royal Assent may be given to it—possibly, on Friday next. For that purpose, it is proposed that there should be a sitting of the House on Monday, that the Second Reading of the Bill should be taken on that day, and that we should ask your Lordships to take the other stages of the Bill on Tuesday and Wednesday, subject, of course, to anything your Lordships may have to say.

My Lords. I have no objection to what is suggested, but I think it is very inconvenient to have a special meeting of the House on a Bill to which there is not likely to be offered any opposition. I have an important engagement in the country on Monday, and I am not sure that I shall be able to postpone it. Therefore, it may be necessary for me to make the few remarks which I should like to make, at a later stage. I am not likely to do anything to prevent the Royal Assent being given on Friday, but I do think that a special meeting of the House for the consideration of a Bill to which there is no general objection is not very convenient.

My noble friend can make his speech on the Motion to go into Committee. That course has often been taken before. We can have the Second Reading on Monday and the speech of my noble friend can be reserved until the next stage.

Could the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack tell us what is the urgency?

Perhaps I may be allowed to give reasons next week when we ask the House to suspend the Standing Orders?

It will hardly be necessary to suspend the Standing Orders in this case.

My Lords, I beg to move the Resolution which appears on the Paper in my name as to the desirability of appointing a Standing Joint Committee on Indian Affairs. It may be within the recollection of your Lordships that I was invited some days ago to state whether I proposed to set up this Committee, and I answered that question in the affirmative. It is, I think, unnecessary to elaborate arguments in favour of setting up this Committee, which has been established each Session since the year 1921, consistently with a recommendation of the Joint Committee of both Houses which, as your Lordships will recollect, considered the Government of India Bill in 1919. It is apparent, I think, to everyone that great advantages may be derived from having in existence a body representative of both Houses, and including much Indian administrative experience. The Secretary of State can readily, with the aid of such a body, ensure this result, that there is a considerable number of members of Parliament specially qualified to deal with Indian subjects who will be in touch with the development, from month to month, of Indian affairs, and who are available to advise on questions arising from time to time as to the amendment of Rules framed under the Government of India Act, and, more rarely, on the Act itself.

I am anxious not to make any general statement on Indian affairs either to the Committee or to the House itself until I have had the advantage of personal discussion with the Viceroy after his arrival in this country at the end of next month, but I hope the House will agree in due course to refer to the Joint Committee the Bill which I have introduced to-day, and to which the House has given a First Reading, to amend the Government of India Act, which has been framed in order to enable effect to be given to certain recommendations in the Report of the Royal Commission on the Superior Civil Services in India, presided over by the noble Viscount, Lord Lee of Fareham. The terms of the Motion which define the functions of the Joint Committee follow precisely those of the similar Motion adopted last year and the year before.