stitutional association with British India. Thus it is now thought that the All-India Federal Government may come into force by 1039. Whether this revived complaisance of the Princes can quicken itself to the point of enabling. the King-Emperor to inaugurate the change on the occasion of his Coronation Durbar is open to doubt, if only because of the magnitude of the machinery and the number of States involved.
In' the meantime the. Contra Legislature "as devised under the existing Montagu-Chelmsford Constitution will continue to function in the restricted central field which, will obtain when autonomy takes effect in the Provinces. It is useful to consider the apparent subsidence of those intense national-
{st antagonisms which were troubling the Government of India a few years ago. The Congress Party of which Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru is the leading figure is still hostile, but it is under a handicap owing t the uncertainty aroused by its alleged tendencies to embrace Communism on the one hand and fon the other to" place its virulent nationalism at the disposal of the Indian capitalist! Thus the Communist section find it dificult. to defend the actions of the other and are further embarrassed by the evidence that the interests of the peasant and worker are. far more solicitously: regarded by the Government than by Congress ppliticlans who, in giving vent to their perverted nationalism play into the hands of millionaire industrialists.
Nevertheless the Congress party with its curiously effective urganiz~ ation will enter into the political adventures of the new Constitution, only in the hope of obstructing it 'This, if recent history is any guide, may' lead to eventual ce-operation by the more logical members of the party, appreciative as they must be of the undoubted power to which the enlarged electorate gives access, Making all allowances for the persistence of Congress hostility, It is clear to many who have followed the growth of Indian political life, that there is far greater readiness nowadays to accept the principle ce-operation with: the Govern ment, This is in no small measure due '0 an appreciation of the signi ficance of events in Europe. Great Britain's efforts in defence of demcratic liberty have been noted. Moreover the Indian politician' is not exactly blind to the danger of permitting defences to fall into disrepair. There are two definite thoughts which militate against complacent encouragement of ¢x-tremist views: the first is that, in spite of the reisertion of the rule force and blows which it has delivered against democracy else where, Great Britain has proceeded fearlessly with the fulfilment of her Pledges to create a self-governing India; the second is that the prospect of preserving the liberties and ordered administration now functioning under British and Indian ce-operation might rapidly fade were another regime to come into existence. To this conviction the sympathetic understanding, Mberal outlook and assiduous investigations of Lord Linlithgow add great force. have a record of war service of which it is not necessary to speskk. Lancashire Landing in the 20th Century, and "Minden in the 18h—to mention two of many glorious episodes in the regimental record—are now part of English history. In entrusting the battalion to Tientsin mention should be made of the assiduous support given by its officers and men to every form of sporting activity here, The XXth's territorial signi-Mleance is more exactly described in the Army List than can always be. the lot of a regiment. Young Lancashire shows its smartness on Farade in its ranks and, no less firmly upholds Lancashire's unrivalled and catholic delight in any kind of sport. Without straining the modesty of its Commandant, his officers and men, may it be possible to quote here the comment of a Shanghailander who met it—though not them—a quarter of a century ago on the plains of the Punjab and then—war-hardened—again on the same plains but in a different station: "the XXth' are always good value, wherever they are." Tientsin is lucky and being mo less sporting than Shanghai. will be sure ju to take full advantage of its luck in greeting a "champion" set of men.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.