338 



The Review of Reviews. 



Apra to, ItOS 



Bindi Punch.} [Bomoay. 



India Weighing the Results of the General Election. 

 HDvD "Does that au?ur good or evil for me, ma'am?"' 

 BRITA:«NIA: "It all depends on tlie weisrlit. Wait and 

 see.'.' 



system in which the natives of India shall have a 

 far greater share than they now have in the Govern- 

 ment. That is all very well. But fine words butter 

 no parsnips. If Mr. Morley had resolutely undone 

 the repartition he would have given proof that he 

 meant business, and would thereby have inspired a 

 confidence which in solid cash would have repaid 

 manv times over the cost of a reconstitution of the 

 boundaries of Bengal. Note as a welcome illustra- 

 tion of the new and better day that has dawned that 

 there was actually a good House during this first 

 Indian debate in the new Parliament. 



There is no need to enter into any 

 Mr. Balfour's detail as to the negotiations which 

 Capitulation, resulted in Mr. Balfour being per 

 mitted to continue to lead the 

 Unionist Partv on condition of his acceptance of 

 Mr. Chamberlain's programme. Everyone feels sorrv 

 for Mr. Balfour, and I gladly draw a veil over this 

 final humiliation. Suffice it to say, after struggling 

 vainly against the inevitable, Mr. Balfour succumbed 

 on St. Valentine's Day. His letter to Mr. Cham- 

 berlain, declaring Fiscal Reform the first construc- 

 tive object of the Unionist Party, concludes by his 

 formal waiving all objection to a tax on food and a 

 general tariff — the two things to which he had 

 hitherto been supposed to be insuperably opposed. 

 Mr. Chamberlain secured this capitulation by the 



simple process of threatening to start a party or- 

 ganisation of his own if Mr. Balfour continued 

 recalcitrant. The lion and the lamb having lain 

 down together, with the lamb inside the lion, the 

 threatened disruption of the party was averted. Mr. 

 Balfour's formal leadership was formally approved 

 at a Tory caucus at Lansdo>vne House, and he was 

 subsequently elected member for the City in plai'- 

 of Mr. Gibbs (retired) by a majority of 11,000 od 



.\las, poor Milner! There is some- 

 Alas, thing tragic in the spectacle 

 Poor Milner which the late High Commissioner 



afforded the House of Lords last 

 month. On reading his speech I felt like Hamlet 

 when the rude knave with his dirty shovel threw up 

 the skull of Yorick. For the grave had not worked 

 more havoc with the lips and eyes of the King's late 

 jester than six years of despotic power had worked 

 upon the once Liberal soul of my old colleague. 

 For on the speech in the House of Lords the tyrant 

 stood confessed — a tyrant whose one idea of govern- 

 ment is to use racial supremacy as his sole instru- 

 ment. There was no longer any disguise. Naked 

 and unashamed Milnerism stood revealed before our 

 eyes. His one idea, to which he constantly reverred. 

 was that of creating a kind of African Ulster in 

 the Transvaal, in which the " plantation " would, 

 with the aid of Chinese labour, dominate, not only 

 the Transvaal, but also the Orange Free State and 

 the Cape Colony. Ulster was planted with Pro- 

 testants, who were to serve as the garrison of the 

 English conqueror, the native population being re- 

 duced to a condition of permanent subjection. 

 This is the ultimate logical development of Union- 

 ism. As if one Ireland were not enough to be the 



Westminster Gazette.^ 



The Neophyte's Vigil. 



When Mr. Balfour, after his Tigil. returns to the House of 

 Commons, he will have to be in full communion with the 

 Tariff Reform Faith. 



