NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE vote on the India report at the meeting of the Council of the Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations on Tuesday was an event of historic importance. If Conservatism claims to be synonymous with ordered progress Conservatives were true to their name when they rejected, by a vote of 1,102 to 390, Lord Salisbury's amendment condemning both federation and responsibility at the Centre, and adopted by acclamation Mr. Amery's resolution simply and shortly approving the policy laid down in the Select Committee's report. Many factors contributed to the decision. Mr. Baldwin, for all his tendency to ride his party with a slack rein, can always assert his ascend- ancy when he chooses, and there was no shadow of halting or hesitation about his attitude on Tuesday. But more decisive still in their effect on any doubtful voters were the speeches of Sir Austen Chamberlain and Lord Derby, always the two most influential of the elder statesmen of the party, both of whom confessed frankly that they had gone into the conference with one opinion and come out of it with another. When men so impeccable in their Conservatism can so unhesi- tatingly recognize the compelling force of the facts of the Indian situation the ordinary rank-and-file Con- servative may feel entirely safe in following the great mass of his leaders.
