Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08
Britain Is Heartened by
Two Events of the Week
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, March Two events
this week have had tonic effect on
the political atmosphere of the country
and have occasioned a marked i'm
provement in the general outlook. One
was the Indian settlement and the
other the naval agreement with France
and Italy.
The success of the Irwin-Gandhi
negotiations in India came as COM
plete surprise, for the opinion pre-
vailed that the mahatna was incurably
irreconcilable and many doubted Lord
Twins wisdom in inviting what would
have been humiliating failure. The
event is triumph for the remarkable
patience exhibited by the viceroy
throughout this prolonged crisis and
all responsible opinion is frankly ju-
bilant over the unexpected turn of af-
fairs.
Fears were at first expressed that the
settlement had been secured at the sac
riflce of vital essentials, but the terms
of the agreement show that the Irwin
terms laid down by the Indian Round
table Conference. The fact that Gandhi
dropped his demand that the police
be put in dock and his acceptance of
a provision that general amnesty for
prisoners be conditional on the diScon-
tinuance of civil disobedience are taken
to indicate his sincere desire for &C
commodation.
No one supposes that all the trou-
bles in India are at an end, but 1t Is
confidently assumed that Gandhfs in
huence will lead the Congress party
leaders to cooperate and that in the
face of united India, committed TO
implementing the new constitution,
the forces Of lawlessnesS will be neg
ligible. In view of Gandhi's under
taking to remove the political aspect
of the boycott of foreign goods, Lord
Twins concession of the right to a
non-political boycott creates little con-
Germ, as it is held that the key to
the problem in India Is the creation
of an atmosphere of good will.
The settlement has caused feeling
of immense relief throughout India
and the effect here was reflected In a
much more buoyant condition in In
dian securities and cheerfulneSs in the
Lancashire cotton trade, whose depres-
sion was largely due to the practical
closure of its most important overseas
market.
The only exception to enthusiastic
press approval of the settlement was the
frenzied outbreak of Lord Rothermere
papers, which declared the country had
been betrayed to "a mad fakir' and
called on the Conservative party to de-
nounce the whole Round-Table Confer
ence and resume government in India
by force. Gandhi and Lord Irwin were
subjected to equally violent abuse, but
the vilification is not regarded seri-
ously. 1t is true that the die-hard ele-
ment of the Conservative party has
never been reconciled to the confer
"a "a
Winston Churchill has left Stanley
Baldwin on the Indian issue and is en-
gagged in delivering inflammatory
speeches on the subject indicates dan
ger. But though Baldwin is being bad
gered by Conservative extremists to re-
pudiate the viceroy and the round table,
he certainly will not do so, for he be-
lieves in Lord Irwin, whom he appointed
to the Canadian governor generalship,
and he has formally announced that II
he is returned to power he will imple-
ment the round table solution OF the
Indian problem.
Unfortunately, Baldwin's tenure Of
leadership of the Conservatives is still
in the balance, owing to the terocity
with which the Beaverbrook Rothermere
newspapers are bounding on a Tory
mob against him. This observers i'm
preston, however, is that the Con-
servatives will not dethrone Baldwin
in order to make Churchill the leader.
In any case the Macdonald govern
ment may survive sufficiently long to
make it impossible for its successors to
undo it's work, even II so disposed. The
Irwin Gandhi settlement Is admittedly
a feather in the cap of the Labor gov
eminent, which, whatever its failures in
dealing with domestic discontents, has
been extraordinarily successful in ex-
ternal affairs.
\ X
India is not the only illustration of
that. Not even the die-hard Conserva-
tives can fail to recognize the enormous
and gratifying success of the render
n-Alexander mission to Paris and
Rome, which has resulted in bringing
France and LAZY into the scope of the