The Princes and the India Bill The Government has clearly
taken the right course in regard to the resolution passed by the conference of Indian Princes and Ministers at Bombay on Monday. We need to know much more yet about the temper of the conference, the extent to which it was fully repre- sentative, and the meaning it intended its resolution to bear. Mr. Churchill naturally accepted the resolution as a repudiation of federation, but it was quite certainly nothing of the kind. That the Princes should desire to press for certain emendations in the Government of India Bill was natural, and when conferences of any kind decide to put their desires on paper they frequently express themselves in emphatic terms. One thing is certain. If both the Government and the Princes show themselves -as reasonable as they consistently have throughout the Round Table and Select Committee dis- cussions, an accommodation will be reached without much trouble. Fortunately there is no ground at all for sup- posing that reason has forsaken either party. There are plenty of channels through which the Princes can express their views either while the India Bill is under discussion in the House of Commons or in the interval before the Lords begin work on it, and the Government may be counted on to make any concession not inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Bill.
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