If would be impossible to set out the main findings
and facts of the Simon Report in a more convenient compass or to
describe them in a more lucid manner. The pamphlet gives the average reader exactly what lie needs in order to keep. in his mind a correct conspectus of what the Report contains.
One point of very great importance—upon which Mr. Srinivasa Sastri has recently commented in the Spectator—
about the Indian Army of the future is not cleared up in this brief summary. It would seem that Mr. Ratcliffe regards the Army in the Simon Report, even after its Indianization,
as transferred from the Government of India to Imperial authority. This is a matter that certainly needs clearing up. After going carefully through the Report's own state- ments, the recommendation about the Army appears tu- be so vague as to bear both interpretations.
The last pages of this small pamphlet will be read with the greatest interest of all. Mr. Ratcliffe rightly entitles the historical survey "India without Gandhi." The truth is, the Commissioners never were able to overcome the initial fact of their appointment as a British Parliamentary Commission. The Report, therefore, throughout takes what may be called the " British " point of view. The greatest lack is just there. It hardly seems to be aware, in crucial matters, of an Indian point of view which is directly opposed to that of the British, and therefore it does nothing to harmonize the opposing points of view. Yet if self-govern- ment means anything at all, it surely means that an Indian scheme of things ought to be adopted rather than a British. •
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