7 JANUARY 1928, Page 6

* * * * Mr. Ramsay MacDonald has done a

very useful thing in -addressing a message to India about the Commission. He explains that he has nothing to regret in having advised the Labour Party to accept the scheme' of a purely Parliamentary Commission :- " The party believes in Parliaments and does not believe in bureaucracies. It cannot understand how the Indian movement for national self-respect and self-determination prefers to be represented by the nominees of a bureaucracy in London (as would be the case had a Royal Commission been appointed) to doing its work by a committee of its own, appointed by its own Parliament. It is that fundamental position which has determined the attitude of the Labour Party in this matter."

The idea of the Labour Party is, of course, that a Commission of Indians should receive equal recognition with the Parliamentary Commission presided over by Sir John Simon and that in India they could have joint sessions. This idea was elaborated by the Labour Party Conference at Blackpool. " People who tell you," says Mr. MacDonald in his message, " that we are depart- ing from the Blackpool resolution are prevaricating and misleading you." •