The Government of India has been relieved of an embarrassment
by the abdication of the Maharajah of Indore. The Government offered him the alternative of abdicating or accepting an inquiry into the Malabar Hill murders. Our readers will remember how when Mumtaz Begum, a singing girl, was driving near Bombay with Mr. Bawla, a well-known member of the Bombay Corporation, the pair were attacked by men armed with revolvers and knives. Mr. Bawla was shot and died of his wounds and the girl was wounded in the face. A party of British officers with nothing but golf clubs in their hands rushed to the rescue and captured one of the assassins. Inquiries were naturally made in Indore, as it was well known that the girl had been for years a favourite of the Maharajah and that he had often tried to recover her after -she had left him. In the subsequent trial several persons were condemned and two have been executed. The Maharajah himself remained under sus- picion. The House of Holkar has been unfortunate recently in its relations with the Government. In 1903 Lord Curzon required the abdication of another member of the House because he harnessed some bankers who had annoyed him to a chariot and flogged them round the Royal Park. * * * *
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