Parliament and India The Daily Telegraph's forecast of the recommendations
of the Select Committee on India is sufficiently in accord with general expectation to deserve some atten- tion. It is stated that the Report will be signed about October 25th. If that is so it means that Members of Parliament will have had time to master the document before the new session begins (even though there must be some delay to allow of simultaneous publication in India) and the elections for the Indian Legislative Assembly will have taken place and the danger of a snap vote on undigested proposals will be thus averted. The suggestion that indirect election for the Central Legislature will be substituted for direct is pretty cer- tainly accurate, and the change is a wise one, for Delhi problems mean little to the rank-and-file elector in Madras, and the enormous size of the Central Legislature constituencies makes any direct contact between Member and voters impossible. The prediction regarding in- creased safeguards against discriminatory duties on British goods is less reassuring. So long as it merely prevents penal duties on British goods alone no reason- able Indian can object to it, but too much talk about safeguarding the interests of Lancashire cotton or any other British industry will inevitably make trouble in India. However that may be, the prospect that the Report will see the light less than a couple of months hence is the thing that matters.
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