* * On Monday, in the Legislative Assembly, the Indian
Swarajists made their threatened demonstration against the Government and walked out of the House. One has only to remember the facts of the Budget to understand what a lamentably mistaken move this was. In the first place Sir Basil Blackett's remarkable Budget removes the old and heavy grievance of the Cotton Excise. Secondly, it lightens the contributions of the provinces to the Central Government. Both these things are benefits for which Indian politicians have long clamoured and which they said a greedy and malicious Government would never grant. Yet now, when the Excise disappears bodily and local politicians in the provinces are offered the opportunities, which they used to say were withheld, of using a greater proportion of their funds for developing their nationhood, we get this ridiculous act of dis- approval. One would have thought that the Swarajists would somehow have tried to distinguish these provisions from the rest of the Budget. They might have made a good tactical point by asserting that Sir Basil Blackett's concessions were entirely due to their agitation. They preferred to walk out.
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