10 MAY 1930, Page 1

The Situation in India - The news from India is

still grave, but better than might have been- expected.. On Monday morning, Mr. Gandhi was arrested in his camp at Jalalpur. Receiving every consideration; he was removed by train, and then in a car with the blinds drawn, to Poona, where under an ancient regulation—issued by the East India Company in 1827—he is being detained "during the Government's pleasure." The Governor of Bombay has thus hit upon an ingenious way of avoiding the clamorous demonstrations which would have attended a political trial, and Mr. Gandhi's treatment as a guest rather than as a prisoner should atone for a revival of the raison d'état. In a Press note the Bombay Govern- ment charges Mr. Gandhi_ with incitement to withhold payment of land revenue" and- with having threatened to raid salt which was the property of salt manufacturers. We must congratulate the Government of India on a forbearance whiah is duly appreciated throughout the world, but which also confers on the Government a certain tactical advantage. The careful plans of the -Congress leaders for a campaign of resistance to succeed the arrest of the Mahatma are in disarray, since several of the organizers are already under restraint and out of mischief. The Government's arrangements were much the better.