In the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Olivier, the
Secretary of State for India, stated that Indian affairs were causing the Government great anxiety. The manifesto of the Swaraji Party was based on a belief that was " mistaken, uninformed and unjustified." The idea that .the Government might, on the recommendation of a Round Table Conference or a Commission, consent to a new scheme for suddenly establishing full responsible government in India only three years after the intro- duction of the present reforms, could not be encouraged for a moment. That would mean disaster for India. The very fact that many of the people of India had refused to avail themselves of the opportunities offered them by the transitional scheme was a proof that the Government would be wrong to allow them still more self-government. A parliamentary system must be welded together by predominant common interests from its foundation in the electorate upwards. No theoretical constitution that might be evolved by means of a con- cordat among the leaders of divergent interests would prevent the political structure from flying asunder if the reality of co-operation was not there.
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