India Simla now waits for London to fix a date
for the resump- tion of the Round Table Conference. India's fears that it may not be the very earliest possible date are the more unfortunate in that one of the most hopeful features of last week's informal conference was the impatience of its members to get to business again. It would be a sad pity to damp such valuable zeal. It is gratifying to hear of the excellent impression produced on the Indian leaders by the new Viceroy. His predecessor, Lord Irwin, in a speech last week to the British-Indian Asso- ciation, reviewed the issues at stake with tempered and judicious optimism, laying wise emphasis on the element of .inevitability in the present crisis. Mr. Winston Churchill's fire-eating still wins applause from certain sections of the Press : Ancient Pistol was always a favourite with the pit. The unrest in Burma is becoming a serious irritant. More reinforcements are arriving there, but the Government has decided not to declare martial law. Even the reassuring knowledge that Nature will enforce an amnesty with the rains in June cannot dispel a suspicion that the authorities should have shown more enterprise and less complacency during the past month. * * * *
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