24 MAY 1946, Page 4

One interesting parallel between this year's negotiations on India and

those which led to the .adoption of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms in 1919 is worth noting. The enquiry in India twenty- nine years ago was carried out by a Cambridge Secretary of State, Mr. E. S. Montagu, strongly influenced by an Oxford don, Mr.

Lionel Curtis. This time the Secretary of State is again a Cam- bridge man, and it is safe to say that another Oxford don, Sir

Reginald Coupland, has contributed substantially by his writings on India (he was there during the Cripps mission in 1942) to the shaping of the plan now under consideration.