On both financial safeguards and defence differences between the British
and Indian delegations have been reduced to narrower proportions. Financial stability will be even more necessary for the new Indian government than for the present one, for it will have to create con- fidence instead of inheriting a tradition of confidence already established. The fact that debt services, pensions and other fixed charges form so large a proportion of the Indian budget is a real difficulty, for if special powers are reserved to the Governor-General in that wide field the field in which the Legislature enjoys full freedom is correspondingly narrowed. The arrangement suggested is only temporary, and the Indian delegates seem more sensible of the necessity of it than they were. As to defence the Secretary of State was able to come some way towards meeting Indian desires. The Governor-General will still be free to appoint anyone he will as Defence Minister, not necessarily choosing him from the Legisla- ture, but the military budget is to be laid before the Legislature, where it will be voted chapter by chapter, not as a single whole, and it is to be discussed with the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister before presentation to the Legislature. The universal desire of the Indian delegates is to get military expenditure reduced and • the criticism of Ministers and Legislature may have some effect in that direction, though the Governor-General's demands, if -he sticks to them, nmst finally prevail. • - -
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