22 NOVEMBER 1930, Page 9

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This document displays the utmost goodwill but scant imagination. In manner it is colourless by the side of the Simon Report. It is already out of date, in view of the momentous declarations by spokesmen of the Indian States at the RouUd Table Conference. These spokesmen demand an All-India Federation, not merely a British-Indian authority. The Indian Princes have, in fine, plainly and publicly backed up all the 783 reasonable demands of Indian nationalism. It now 784 remains for them to supply the leadership so urgently necessary to the Conference and not likely to be forth- 785 coming from others. The early speeches—that of Sir 785 Muhammed Shafi on Tuesday, for instance—have shown 786 that Moslems and Hindus are at one in demanding 789 responsible government at the centre, and also in their willingness to co-operate with the Princes in evolving a Federal Constitution. That is a considerable advance. A Committee is already at work considering the structure of such a system.