27 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 2

Progress in India

The Government of India, while the Consultative, Committee is still held up by the insoluble communal question, which it is now to refer to the British! Government, is proceeding with praiseworthy despatch'

with one at least of the reforms agreed on at the Round Table Conference, the elevation of the North- west Frontier Province to the status of a Governor's Province. The constitution will for the moment be dyerchical, but, like other provinces, the North-West will enjoy fully responsible government when the new Indian constitution takes effect. The first elections arc to be held in April. Meanwhile Lord Lothian and his franchise committee are hard at work, and a description conies to hand of how the chairman himself, encountering a critical and hostile crowd, characteristically joined them and invited their suggestions. No settlement that does not take full account of the different streams of Indian thought and sentiment can have in it the elements of durability. We are glad for that reason to publish in another page a letter in which a well-known Indian Liberal, Sir Sivaswamy Aiyer, portrays the Indian outlook as he sees it. His estimate is, of course, his, not ours, but it represents the contribution of a mind both constructive and sympathetic to this country.

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