14 MARCH 1931, Page 2

On Wednesday the Special Correspondent of the News - Chronicle stated that

opinion in India had swung in favour of London, instead of Simla, as the next meeting place for the Round Table Conference and that Mr. Gandhi has expressed his willingness to come to London. There is also a report that the Government themselves do not desire an immediate Conference in India. If so, there could not be better news. Here is a " way out." We can have no doubt whatever that Mr. Baldwin will do his utmost to keep his Party loyal to its pledges, though there are many dissidents, as our Parlia- mentary Correspondent tells us. It has always been a wise Unionist tradition to trust to the man on the spot until overwhelming proof comes that he cannot be trusted. We feel sure that Mr. Baldwin will appear as a supporter of the Irwin policy, and then of the Willingdon policy, even if he has publicly to stand out against Mr. Churchill. In the meantime he will do well to call the attention of all his followers to the supreme import- ance of helping Indian people to see that the British nation is not given to acts of bad faith. If we are right in our estimate of the situation, there is no bad faith, but Indians have been given a very good excuse for thinking that there was. The loose action of the Unionist India Committee, composed of experienced men, was inexcusable.