India's Tariffs The Government was right to resist resolutely the
proposal sponsored this week by Lancashire Members for the creation of an Indian Tariff Board whose members should be nominated by the Governor-General after con- sultation with the Secretary of State. Lancashire is, of course, intelligibly apprehensive of the effect of import duties which an Indian Government under the new regime may impose, but that battle was fought out long ago by Mr. Montagu, and nothing 'would more inevitably or more justly arouse suspicion and hostility throughout India than the idea that the fiscal autonomy at present enjoyed was being limited in the interests of a British industry. As Lord Eustace Percy justly said, there is really an unbridgeable gulf fixed between Members who think such a proposal just and those who regard it as indefensible.' India is far more likely to approve of Imperial Preference. on a generous scale if the attempt to force it on her as a fetter is scrupulously avoided. Fortunately, in spite of the defection of a few Lancashire Members, the proposal was rejected by 221 to 52.
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