To Delhi

At London it was announced that the Right Honorable Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, M. P., only son of Lord Halifax (Groom of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales) has been appointed Viceroy of India, to succeed Lord Reading upon the latter's announced retirement next April.

Britons reflected that the newly chosen Viceroy, although a Conservative, is known to have a Liberal bent. Eton, Christ Church and the traditional round of aristocratic preferment have smoothed his path. As Under Secretary for the Colonies under Mr. Lloyd George; as British representative on the Council of the League of Nations in 1923; and as Minister of Agriculture in the present Cabinet, he has had wide experience in states-craft if not a scintillant career. In India his experience and his aristocratic background will well become the Viceregal Lodge at Delhi. Meanwhile historians turned, to contemplate the retiring Viceroy; prepared to write the Earl of Reading down as one who has dominated India with tactful potency since 1921.

They recalled that to the name of Rufus Daniel Isaacs he added the style of Baron, Viscount and Earl, during the War. And though his mother was born "a simple Cohen," and his father was "a merchant in the City of London," he himself became Lord Chief Justice of England as early as 1913. As President of the Anglo-French Loan Commission to the U. S. in 1915, Special Envoy thither in 1917, and High Commissioner and Special Ambassador to the U. S. later in that year, he well earned the titles subsequently conferred upon him by carrying out a series of confidential missions vital to the Allies.

In India his regime has been marked by firm yet temperate dealings with the followers of Gandhi, who are ever fomenting their "passive revolution" into an attempted boycott of Western civilization. His reply to the Nationalist demand for an immediate revision of the Constitution was: "The re-examination of the Constitution may take place when the British

Government are persuaded that there has been genuine co-operation by the responsible Indian political leaders in working the existing Constitution!"

An unflurried, enlightened Viceroy, his successor must bestir himself actively to match his worth.