There are still some drawbacks to note which disappoint us.
The last, for instance, is that the native Ministers, Marathi and Hindu, in the Central Provinces cannot work together and the principal figures have resigned. The Bombay Mill strikes still drag on miserably. Apart from man-made difficulties, the rains have not been kind. Heat and drought have threatened to ruin crops in the Punjaub. This week rain has begun to fall. It will seem perverse if this is too late to save the crops, as is feared, but is in time to swell the Indus before the expected flood from the delayed bursting of the dam caused by the glacial obstruction in the Skyok River. If this had burst when the first and false report came, the flood would have flowed into a very dry Indus with so much the less damage to be expected. At present the tension of those who are waiting for the release of the lake that has been formed up in Kashmir is still unrelieved. No effort can be made to control or fight the forces of nature which will be let loose, but by great efforts they will, we hope, be outwitted by man : which means that Indian lives will be saved by British wits.
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