LONDON: `Whatever modifications or transformations there might be in the future constitution of India the ruling princes in India and their able advisors were bound to play a very large part,` Mr. Amery, Secretary of State for India said today [Jan 8] speaking at a luncheon of the Overseas League given in honour of the Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar.

Mr. Amery said: `The ruling princes of India are an essential and indispensable element in the life of India. They are not merely, as is sometimes suggested, museum pieces reproducing the splendour and chivalry and also perhaps the casualness of the middle ages. They are responsible ruler sof territories, some of them equalin population and extent to major European nations, and their responsibilities are by no means small.

`Their primary responsibility is the good Government of their people in accordance with such methods as suit the dispositions of the people and in accordance with the spirit of the times,` Mr. Amery added.

In the course of his speech the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar said that recruiting in India was now at an average of 70,000 per month. The Indian army would soon pass the two million mark and before the war ended would certainly exceed three million. If he had his way it would exceed 10 million. Dawn Delhi