PUNJAB’S NEXT GOVERNOR

THE announcement that His Majesty the King-Emperor has approved the appointment of Sir Malcolm Hailey as the Governor of Punjab in succession to Sir Edward MacLagan will cause no surprise, both because this is exactly the kind of appointment that was expected in the present circumstances, and because this particular name had for months been prominently mentioned in connection with the impending vacancy in Punjab. Indian opinion has, however, always been generally opposed to the appointment of ICS men as Governors, at any rate in the more important provinces, and so far as Sir Hailey is concerned, his record, whether as Chief Commissioner of Delhi Province or as a member of the Government of India, has not been such as to induce that opinion to make an exception in his case. Indeed, it is a matter of common knowledge that some of his speeches, particularly as Home Member, have been deeply offensive to Indian sentiment, while his last public utterance, to which we referred in a recent issue, has been all but universally condemned. At the present time, owing to a combination of circumstances within the knowledge of everybody, the task of administration in this province has become so difficult that nothing less than the highest qualities of statesmanship is required in the head of the government, if the administration is to be carried on with an ordinary measure of success. Of these qualities, the most important of which are tact, judgment, imagination and sympathy with popular ideals and aspirations, Sir Hailey has given no evidence that we know of, while in some of them he has so far been found conspicuously lacking.