On Tuesday in the Council of State at Simla another
nail was driven into the coffin of the boycott policy. The official motion before the Council was that in accor- dance with the request of Sir John Simon the Council should proceed with the election of three members to the Central Committee—representing Indian interests— which has been invited to sit with the Statutory Commis- sion. The official members had an easy time in the debate, as all the boycotters' arguments were answered by their fellow non-official members. Sir Phiroze Sethna used the unfortunate argument that as the Assembly had accepted a boycott resolution it would be absurd for the Council to proceed with a scheme which could not now be carried out on its original lines. At once his fellow-members were moved by pride in their own House and indignantly reminded him that the Council had promised months ago to co-operate with the Statutory Commission, and that, after all, the Council was a revising body. The Sikh leader, who was formerly a boycotter, announced his conversion to co-operation. Ultimately the official motion was carried without a division.
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