The old problem of beggary in India is likely to come up again for consideration at the next session of the Punjab Council, one of the members of which is likely to introduce if the Government will sanction it, a bill to tablish Public Relief Committee.
In Indic while huge sums fare dispensed privately charity it is a curious! Tact thay it is the least organized of all countries the matter of oer relief. Pract ily no attempt, B therefore, is made to discriminate between the deserving and fraudulent cases, with the result th professional beggars nowhere exist! in such numbers as in India—not even in China. For example, it is} said that in the Punjab alone charity' maintains no fewer that 500,000 beggars and that of these not mo.e than 30,000 can be classed as deserving cases. The Committee which the Bil! proposes to set up) would consist of 12 Moslems, 121 Hindus, 12 Sikhs and 12 others and four forms are proposed under which relief would be granted, vi:-, (1) Scholarships to poor students on a debt of honour basi commodation to orphan: pers in the orphanages and poor houses to be maintained by the Committee; (3) Out relief to deserving widows, orphans and other des._ timate persons and (4) any form approved by a two-thirds majority' of the Committee. If this measure is passed it will certainly be a commendable effort to remove a deeply rooted evil in the Punjab] and should be an incentive to other!
jai Governments to initiate! similar measures. Incidentally, the introduction of this Bill in the! Punjab Council by a Mahommedan gentleman shows how fur the Indian ind is travelling on progressive ines, Nowencuaturs in foreign Parliamentary circles seems often to follow strikingly appropriate lines. Last year the Polish Premier who championed the policy of a capital levy bore the fitting name of M. Grabeki. The name of Dr. Mendes dos Remedios among those chosen to form the new Portuguese Cabinet holds out good hopes of reform, while on the other hand one feels that Abdel Krim wus courting the disaster which he has new met by including two such ominous names as Si Mohammed Azerkane and Si Yohammed Hitmi among the delegates who represented him at Ujda. Yet another picturesque coincidence occurred in the recent fracas in the Czechoslovakian Parliament over the mew grain tariff, when a kdy named Kularik expressed her disap. Fointment with the turn political vents were taking by Destag an
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.