Feb. 26, British India, less Burma, now be a separate entity, has duly polted provincial elections preparatory' to the introduction of responsible: autonomous government in the eleven provinces under the con stitution which comes into force on April 1. The existing constitution still will apply to the Central Government and Legislature, except in so far as the autonomy in the provinces involves the transfer of functions from the centre. When Federation has been accepted by the Indian States—a point on which Lord Linlithgow has just addressed the Indian Princes—the process of constitutional reform will be completed by setting up the new Federal' Government and Legislature. "It Is now believed that within' two years this goal will be reached, as the result of special negotiations lately conducted between. the 'Viceroy through certain high' ofMclass of his Government and the Indian States. Tu the elections now almost completed. the " Legislative! Councils (upper houses) offer ap-; proximately 260 and the Leeislative Assemblies (lower houses) 1.561 seats to be filled. Of the latter; 482° seats go to Moslems and 40 to! women. The registered voters! number about 30,000,000 of whom 6,000,000 are women. For contested seats 50 per cent, of the electorates have polled—by no means a bad. first effort, especially as the franchise has been extended from 3 to about 14 per cent. of the population. 'The Congress Party—stronger' in organization than any other, single party in India as a whole—has successfully pressed its spectacular, if arid, programme on the voters. Its President Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru has conducted a whirlwind campaign including the use of 'a chartered aeroplane to enable him to cover the immense ground. The Tesull is not unexpected, although it may seem paradoxical to those who victory in Spain a success or a be made for if present practices its intention to "wreck" the very! Congress politicians will no doubt
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.