In the House of Commons on Thursday week the Secretary
of State for India announced that the Bill for Indian Reform would be introduced in June, and reviewed the situation in that country. The question of currency was still causing anxiety owing to the increase in the price of silver. It was a gratifying fact that at the Peace Conference India had a place inferior only to that occupied by the " Big Five," and was to be an original member of the League of Nations. The war with Afghanistan was due partly to Mohammedan unrest ; partly to the use of the worst possible means to consolidate a shaky throne ; and partly to Bolshevik emissaries. India's internal troubles were far more serious. They were not something now finished; they still threatened. The districts unaffected were Madras, the Central Provinces, the United Provinces, Bihar, Orissa, and Burma. The Government realized that their first duty was to restore order. The police had resisted every attempt to weaken their loyalty. The causes of unrest were partly economic : diminution in food supplies, and an epidemic of influenza which had cost over five million lives. There was also the worldwide political and 'religious disquietude in the Mohammedan world.
