The Kashmir Trouble The situation in Kashmir is temporarily, at
any rate, quieting down, but what has happened, and what may happen still in that Indian State is a grave reminder of what the communal problem in India means. The Hindu ruler of a predominantly Moslem population has, as an article in last week's Spectator showed, given admir- able assurances of equal treatment for all classes of his subjects, but in the redress of grievances there has been both mishandling and delay. Kashmir adjoins the Punjab, and the danger, of course, is that the Moslem majority in that important province may be set aflame. Fortunately, the jathas, or bands of demonstrators which endeavoured to cross the frontier from the Punjab to support their co-religionists, have accepted arrest and imprisonment unresisting in a spirit of self-immolation. Once more British troops, rarely used, of course, in an Indian State, have proved the indispensable neutral element in a communal conflict. The new demonstration of that has an immediate bearing on some of the questions the Round Table Conference has to settle. * * * *
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