The Future of India The fate of the Round Table
Conference will pretty certainly be decided in the course of the next few days. The Prime Minister has talked with Mr. Gandhi, Sir Taj Bahadur Sapru and others, ,the Cabinet is to discuss the whole situation on Monday, and the Government will no doubt decide then whether to face the risks of bold action which may make or break the Conference. We give reasons elsewhere for believing that courage, here as so often, is wisdom. The communal problem remains the crux, for the Federal Structure Committee has now had before it plans for the new Federal Legis- lature and the Federal Court. The latter is to discharge many of the functions of the United States Supreme Court, having original jurisdiction in disputes between units of Federal India and appellate jurisdiction from High Courts in the Provinces and the final Court in each State in any disputes raising a constitutional issue. The Federal Parliament is to consist of two Chambers, an Upper House of 200, of whom 80 would come from the States, and a Lower House of 300, with 100 seats allotted to the States. These plans, of course, represent no more than drafts on which the main Federal Structure Committee has reached no final conclusions, but the document has been sent forward, with many of the most difficult points still undecided, to the plenary conference.
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