14 APRIL 1923, Page 9

Lord Inchcape returned this week from his important work on

the Retrenchment Committee in India, where he has been wielding the economy axe with no less vigour than it was used by Sir Eric Geddes in London. Out of a total expenditure of over one hundred millions sterling, cuts amounting to thirteen millions have been recom- mended. As regards the general political situation in India, Lord Inchcape told the Paris correspondent of the Times that he had formed an optimistic opinion. " I came away," he said, " perfectly satisfied that, thanks to Lord Reading's wise and cautious statesmanship, everything promises to go well with India. There is certainly no cause for alarm." Let us hope that Lord Inchcape, to whom the nation owes a great debt, is right in his view and that " everything will go well.",