The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 228
212 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN on his exalted task and proved a more successful Viceroy than Lord Linlithgow, who succeeded him, was undoubtedly abler, but was handicapped by rigidity of temperament and a narrow outlook. Lord Willingdon followed a working rule, from which I never saw him swerve, that if his three colleagues were agreed on a matter he always supported them. Then if the British Members did not agree and even the Commander-in-Chief was opposed, making it a case of four against four, Lord Willingdon would use his casting vote and thus the Indian view prevailed. But he did not stop there. He urged the Secretary of State to accept the decision. The Secretary of State had the ultimate authority and could overrule the Viceroy and the Council combined, even in cases where the Council was unanimous. The attitude of Lord Willingdon helped greatly towards the smooth working of the Council. With Lord Linlithgow everything changed. The more he sought support for a particular view, the more dissent was registered and the more manoeuvring took place. In February 1940, when my first term of five years was about to expire, I was asked whether I would be prepared to carry on for another full term. On my intimating that I would be prepared to do so, the King reappointed me for another full five years. That had never happened before. But it was then recognized, that the whole system would soon come to an end and the Secretary of State may have thought the second five-year term may not be completed. What in fact happened, as already stated, was that in 1941 I accepted a vacancy on the Supreme Court of India and went to the Court. But before I went to the Court, I prevailed upon the Viceroy, and he was good enough to support my suggestion and to put it to the Secretary of State, that the Council should be both enlarged and Indianized. That measure was taken simultaneously with my moving from the executive side to the judicial side. On the other hand, my tour of duty as Foreign Minister of Pakistan was under a completely different system, under which the Ministry was responsible to the Legislature and the Head of state, was a Constitutional Head of Government, not having much direct power, though he had more than a limited monarch has. The Constitution was a written one, with a certain number of safeguards embedded in it. Responsibility was through the Prime Minister to the Legislature, and the Prime Minister could get rid of a colleague so long as he possessed