It will be noted that the reception of the Harcourt
Report coincided with the remarkable resolution passed 'by the Chamber of Princes last week declaring their unqualified opposition to all movements in British India which aim at ending the British connexion. The Maharajah of Patiala and other Indian rulers wisely went far beyond a mere negation ; they recognized the inevit- ability of reforms in British India and gave their particu- lar support to the idea of a federal system under which the 'new Constitution of British India could be associated with the native States. The geographical arrangement of India obviously prohibits a series of water-tight compart- ments in which the States and British India would exist side by side without carefully defined political relations. The native States stretch down through India in a con- tinuous chain except where the chain is interrupted by the Central Provinces ; and there are many other important States, on the seaboard for instance. British India and " Indian India " cannot live separate lives if only because the Customs make their association inevitable.
