India : The New Procedure The decision of the Government,
announced by Lord Willingdon at Simla on Monday, to convene a restricted Round Table Conference in London in November is to be welcomed on every ground. It represents no concession to clamour, for when Sir Samuel Hoare announced in 'June the procedure the Government proposed to follow it was stated definitely that the only aim was expedition, and that the Cabinet was by no means pledged irrevocably to the methods then outlined. What caused concern— undue concern, in our view—to Indian Liberals was the possibility that Indians called into consultation with the Select Committee of the two Houses of Parliament before which the Government's detailed proposals are to be laid would enjoy no real equality of status. Technically, of course, they would not, for they could not be members of the Committee. Now, at the cost of sonic small delay, which matters little, a conference of limited membership, on which British and Indian representatives (both of the • States and of British India) will sit in the same equality as in the Round Table Conference itself, is to be interposed before the Select Committee stage.
