Thinking in these terms I hold that we should arm the President with the authority to say that he represents the people. It is no use telling him that there may be conflict between the Prime Minister, or the majority party in the House, and the President elected by the people. Such a conflict need not arise. The President will function only in an emergency; he will function, not ornamentally only, but in a representative capacity with the representatives of other countries. Accordingly this sort of argument would seem to be puerile namely, that you want the President to be a sort of mere gramophone of the Prime Minister. I do not want the President to be anything but the head of the State and representative of the people in their collective capacity and in their sovereignty. For this reason I hold that the President, not being a creature of party majorities in the Centre or the local legislatures but a real representative of the people, and one elected to function as the head of the State and as its representative, this fact is a conclusive argument.
