PROGRESS IN INDIA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 177, 12 July 1927, Page 7

PROGRESS IN INDIA.

PRIMARY EDUCATION MAKING STRIDES ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IMPROVED. (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, July 8. Lord Winterton, Under-Secretary for India, speaking on the Indian Office Voe in the House of Commons to-day, said that many people did not realise the extent to which local povernment in India was in the hands of the Indians themselves, without official control. This right to manage their own affairs had greatly increased in the last five years. Economic conditions had improved. Primary education, he said, was making great strides, and in the Punjab the number of pupil® in the schools had increased in th© last four years by nearly 400,000 to a total enrolment of over 900,000.

The programme of new railway construction, he proceeded, covered 5000 miles. Last year £7,000.000 worth of railway stores were bought in Great- Britain in. open competition with several Continental countries. There had been considerable improvement in the conditions of labour, and India was one of the few countries that had ratified the Washington Eight Hours Convention.