22 AUGUST 1931, Page 1

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The Indian Conference Twenty-seven Indian delegates to the resumed Round Table Conference sailed from Bombay last Saturday. Two days earlier Mr. Gandhi had changed his mind and decided not to come to London. He gave as his reason the alleged violation by the Government of the agreement which he made with Lord Irwin last spring. The Bombay authorities had, he said, wrongfully evicted peasants in Gujerat for non-payment of land tax. The Viceroy and the Governor of Bombay, in correspondence which was published, denied Mr. Gandhi's charges. It was hinted on Monday that Mr. Gandhi, notwithstand- ing the agreement, might order the resumption of the " civil disobedience " campaign. Meanwhile thirty of the Indian ruling Princes announced that they would insist on the strict maintenance of their rights and privileges under any federal constitution that might be framed. The outlook for the Conference is thus far from hopeful, all the more because there is as yet no sign of a Hindu-Moslem compromise over the funds- mental question of representation in the central and provincial legislatures.