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India The Cawnpore Report faces with honesty the facts relating to the most terrible of recent events in India. Last March, in Cawnpore, the attempted enforcement of a hartal by the Hindus, as a protest against the execution of Bhagat Singh, made a serious disturbance all but inevit- able. But the consequences of the outbreak which did occur—they included the loss of nearly 500 lives—were graver than they should have been. The police force was clearly inadequate for the size—and the temper—of the large industrial community which it served ; the govern- ment officials, and notably the District Magistrate, showed a disastrous lack of foresight and an indecision in a crisis which prompt action might have done much to alleviate. The whole report brings home vividly the worst implications of those communal antipathies which seem at the moment an almost unsurmountable barrier in the path towards a Federal India. Preparations for the Round Table Conference in September go forward bravely in its shadow.
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