Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/43

Adviser should give all possible assistance and advice in the formation of this new Department".

73. The above conclusion was considered, in the form of a recommendation, by the Cabinet of the Interim Government at its meeting on 25th June, 1947, and the decision of the Cabinet in that behalf was announced in the Press Communique issued on 27th June, 1947, which read:—

"In order that the successor Governments will each have an organisation to conduct its relations with the Indian States when the Political Department is wound up, His Excellency the Viceroy, in consultation with the Cabinet, has decided to create a new Department called the States Department to deal with matters arising between the Central Government and the Indian States. This Department will be in charge of Sardar Patel, who will work in consultation with Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar. The new Department will be organised in such a way and its work so distributed that at the appropriate time it can be divided up between the two successor Governments without any dislocation. Mr. V. P. Menon will be the Secretary of the new Department".

Sardar Nishtar was thus nominated as the Muslim League member of the Interim Government to be consulted in the working of the new department: Mr. Ikramullah was appointed Joint Secretary of it. It was intended that with effect from 15th August 1947, they would hold charge of the States Department of Pakistan.

Necessity of a Common Centre

74. The decision to partition India was a violent blow to the political, economic and geographical integrity of India. The unity of what remained as India after the partition was most essential not only for the political strength, full economic development and cultural expression of the Indian people but also for facing the aftermath of the partition. The following quotation from Coupland shows very clearly how vital a necessity this unity was to the very existence of the Dominion of India:—

"An India deprived of the States would have lost all coherence. For they form a great cruciform barrier separating all four quarters of the country. If no more than the Central Indian States and Hyderabad and Mysore were excluded from the Union, the United Provinces would be almost completely cut off from Bombay, and Bombay completely from Sind. The strategic and economic