ENTRY INTO COUNCILS

THE All-India Congress Committee was to meet in Calcutta to discuss the report of the Civil Disobedience Enquiry Committee, which for all practical purposes means the conflicting recommendations of the two halves of the Committee on the momentous and at present only practical question of entry into the Councils. That the proceedings of the meeting would be lively, perhaps stormy, all who know anything about the differences which exist among Congressmen in this matter and of which such evidence has been afforded during the last few days, can easily anticipate. If the attitude of the Press and the proceedings of the several Conferences and public meetings held in different parts of the country are an index of the mind of Congressmen, it is almost too much to hope that the pro-entry party will win. Among the leading English newspapers that are devoted to the Congress, though not necessarily to the non-co-operation programme, only three are in favour of entry into the Councils, and of these three only one is in favour of entry into the Councils with a policy of immediate obstruction. Among the vernacular newspapers the proportion seems to be as small, in some provinces even smaller. Four Provincial Conferences have been held since the division among the members of the C.D. Committee came to be known, and of these while one has, under the guidance of its President, refrained from expressing any opinion on the subject, three have declared themselves against the entry. The last of the three — the Conference at Rohtak — is the most noticeable, because it was the first Conference held after the publication of the C.D. Report and after the delegates and their leaders had had an opportunity of studying the arguments for and against entry, as presented by the two halves of the Committee, including the President-elect of the Congress himself.

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