845.00/2217: Telegram
The Officer in Charge at New Delhi (Merrell) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 20—12:46 a.m.]
132. After appealing for the cooperation of all elements in India in the prosecution of the war, the Viceroy2 on February 17, 1944, in his first political pronouncement of importance told the Houses of the Indian Legislature that: (1) The British Government and people hope that as early as possible India can achieve complete self-government as a willing partner of the British Commonwealth. (2) The Cripps’ offer3 which was not made in panic still stands and suggests one, but [Page 233] not the only way towards the framing of a new constitution which rests completely in Indian hands. (3) When a constitution is agreed upon Britain is ready to relinquish authority but this cannot take place until at least the two principal parties (Congress and Muslim League) come to terms. (4) India is a natural unit and it is up to Indians to devise arrangements so that the Hindu and Muslim communities can live within this unit. (5) Until the detained Congress leaders prove their willingness to cooperate in driving the enemy to the gates of India, and withdraw the quit India resolution, demands for their release are barren. The first reaction of both the Congress party and Muslim League press is disappointment and the assertion that the speech offers nothing new.
The leading Muslim press newspaper is bitter at the Viceroy’s reiteration of the opposition to Pakistan4 expressed by his predecessor5 in December 1942.
The Viceroy spoke courteously of the jailed Congress leaders recognizing their ability and high-mindedness and refrained from calling them pro-Japanese. He made it plain that they will not be released until they abandon their August 1942 stand. The Hindu press is bitterly disappointed in this, stating that a new constitution cannot be drawn up with these leaders in jail, and their imprisonment makes impossible the negotiation of a compromise between Congress and the League. Dawn6 states that Gandhi wants an unconditional release by an apologetic government. The Viceroy apparently insists that admission of their errors and a promise of loyal cooperation during the war must precede release. Dawn sums up this situation neatly by stating that there is a spirit of unconditional surrender on both sides. One Indian Nationalist characterized the speech as “frank but cautious, disappointing but hopeful, tone not bad”.
I feel that this speech does not alter the political situation materially and that there will be no progress until either the imprisoned Congress leaders, or the British, or both modify the stand both sides have taken of questioning the good faith and sincerity of the other.
Full text of speech forwarded by air mail.7
- Field Marshal Archibald P. Wavell, Viscount Wavell, Viceroy since October 1943.↩
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In March, 1942, the British War Cabinet had commissioned Sir Stafford Cripps, then Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons, to proceed to India to offer Indian nationalist leaders a plan proposing an interim transfer of political power in India, pending a permanent constitutional settlement at the end of the war. The “Cripps proposals” (printed subsequently as a White Paper, British Cmd. 6350: India (Lord Privy Seal’s Mission), April, 1942) were rejected by the Indian leaders, both of the predominantly Hindu Congress party and the Moslem League.
With the subsequent evoking of mass civil disobedience by the Indian nationalist leader and proponent of non-violence, the Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi, and endorsed by the leadership and Working Committee of the Congress party, the Government of India in August 1942 had ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Gandhi; Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Congress party president; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s “heir” in the Congress party leadership; and the Working Committee of the Congress party. Widespread disorders followed throughout the country.
For interest of the United States in aspects of the situation in India in 1942, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, pp. 593 ff.
↩ - The concept of a separate Moslem state in India after independence and the touchstone of the political objectives of the Moslem League.↩
- The Marquess of Linlithgow.↩
- Influential Moslem newspaper.↩
- Despatch No. 366, February 21, not printed.↩