13 MARCH 1926, Page 5

A curious incident followed. Mr. Patel, the President (or Speaker)

of the Assembly, declared that as the House was clearly no longer representative the Government ought to bring forward only uncontroversial business. If it did not do so, he said, he might exercise his undoubted powers to adjourn the House indefinitely. That curious incident led on to another. The non-Swaraj ist members visited Mr. Patel in his bungalow and angrily informed him that he had grossly insulted them. He has spoken as though every Indian member who had remained in the' House when the Swarajists walked out was in the pocket of the Government. Mr. Patel quailed before the storm, and the end of the matter was that he withdrew a good deal of what he had said. It is only just to add that his position is as difficult as that of the Free State representative on the Irish Boundary Commission. * * *