NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE text of the India Bill
follows so closely the recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on India that it calls for no extensive comment here. It will bring the new provincial constitutions into being within a brief period after its passage into law, and provide for the creation of the Federal Government at the centre as soon as the necessary conditions for that—primarily the adhesion of half the States—have been fulfilled. One change of some importance is that the new Federal Court is to give judgement only on the interpretation of the Constitution Acts, not on ordinary federal laws. For the rest the Bill reproduces, except for certain minor variations, the findings of the Joint Select Committee. That means that it is on balance overloaded with safegilards, and since there is no preamble the grave error of the omission of all reference to Dominion Status even as an ultimate aim is per- petuated. The Seriousness of this cannot be too strongly emphasized. -Ministers can still do something to improve the atmosphere by their speeches in the course of the coming debate, but unless the impression in India that this country, instead of giving her autonomy, -is giving her a little more rope, can be corrected the effect' will be disastrous.
