The Indian Scene
In India economics are going better than politics; Sir George Schuster was able, on Monday, to introduce a Budget which he expects to balance without new- taxa- tion, thanks in the main to the exercise of rigid economy: The effect of the boycott, combined with the development of India's own textile industry, is shown by the statement that only about 900,000,000 yards of cotton piece goods are imported a year as against 8,200,000,000 before the War. The drop in the duty yield on such imports has to be made up by taxation elsewhere. Part of it has come from the 25 per cent. increase of the salt duty, which (as in the case of previous increases) has not resulted in diminished consumption, suggesting that it is not a burden intolerable to the consumer. On the political side signs of Moslem recalcitrance multiply, and it is clear that the British Government, to which the task of settling the communal question has been relegated, has a singularly awkward problem to handle. The only course is to handle 'it firmly and face India with a definite policy.
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