The decisions of the Indian National Congress at Bombay were
of the extreme character that was expected when the Moderates refused to have anything to do with the Congress. The decisions proved that the Extremists are entirely dissatisfied with the Montagu- Chelmsford proposals. They demanded that the Supreme Govern- ment should be forced to recognize the same division between " transferred " and " reserved " subjects as is proposed for the Provincial Governments. They want to cripple the Council of State and to abolish the Secretary of State's Council. These points are a flat negation of the Montagu Report, which, extremely dangerous as it is, confines the democratic experiment to the Provinces. The Extremists, moreover, demand that their impossible scheme should be achieved within fifteen years. The parallel between India and Ireland, which we have pointed out several times, becomes more striking. What Mr. Montagu's scheme would do would be to apply a terribly dangerous form of government to India in order to placate a band• of Extremists who in any case would refuse to be placated. In the course of the attempt at conciliation the Moderates, not to mention the millions of the inarticulate underworld, would be sacrificed.
Previous page
