The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 22
22 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN dations were very disappointing; they did not find support anywhere. So that the Commission's Report was, in that sense, stillborn. It is still a valuable document for the constitutional historian, but beyond that it did not have any effect at all. The feeling of disappointment and frustration was so deep and widespread in India that the British Government soon announced that a Roundtable Conference would be called in London to deal with the Constitutional problem. The announcement made no mention of the Commission's report. It was completely by-passed and became a dead letter. In the fall of 1930, the first Roundtable Conference was convened. It met in St. James's Palace. It opened with great pageantry. There was the British section, in which all parties were represented. There was a whole galaxy of Princes, representing the Princely order of India. Then there were representatives of the various communities and interests of India and Burma. We had some very eminent members among the Muslim representatives. There was, of course, His Highness, the late Aga Khan, who was not only leading the Muslims but was generally acknowledged to be, if not the leader of the whole Indian continent, the most eminent member of it. Everybody treated him with great deference. He did not make many speeches but his counsel was invaluable for us and he provided the opportunity of contacts which were extremely useful and indeed essential. Then there were Sir Muhammed Shafi, Mr. Jinnah, Sir Syed Sultan Ahmed from Bihar, the Nawab of Chhatari from the United Provinces, and Maulana Mohammad Ali and I was one of the junior members. At the very beginning, one question was got out of the way. The Burmese representatives put forward a demand that they wished Burma to be separated from India and to have its own constitutional framework and make its own way towards independence. That was conceded. So that, from then onwards, the Burmese section did not sit with the Indians; they had their separate discussions. The concept of an All India Federation, including the British Indian Provinces and the Princely States, was put forward and was generally accepted; but, of course, a whole lot of problems had to be cleared up and resolved. Mr. Ramsey MacDonald was then Prime Minister, at the head of a Labour administration. Between the first Roundtable Conference and