2 AUGUST 1935, Page 3

The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : Mr.

Winston Churchill used the opportunity of the Lords' amendments to the India Bill to fire his last shots in the great contro- versy that now for nearly seven years has occupied the centre of the stage of British politics. It was in a sense rather a melancholy spectacle. Mr. Churchill has fought so hard and has been so decisively beaten that in this last rearguard action hardly a dozen 'of his own followers thought it . worth while to be present and support him. But he appeared not to notice their absence and was in tearing spirits throughout the debate, harrying the ministers in charge of it as merrily as he must have done in his salad days more than thirty years ago. In particular he made great sport of the change that had been made from indirect to direct election for the Council of State. " This particular tergiVersation," he declared, " was one of the most revealing instances Which brought 'home to everyone the jerry-built and insubstantial structure by which the House was invited to believe the masses of India would march forward into a- brighter and a better age." But he did not once challenge a division and the Bill now receives the Royal assent with a unanimity in the House of Commons that when the controversy began would have appeared beyond the expectations of the most optimistic.