HINDSIGHT IN INDIA Sm,—The - articles by Brigadier Desmond Young in your
last two issues have been most impressive and far ahead of some of the horror-hunting and politically inspired articles that seem unfortunately to be far too prevalent in this country. However, in the second article there are one or two statements that might be challenged. Firsly, Earl Mountbatten's acceptance of the Governor-General's office was surely not a mistake, as not only have his counsels been available to a Government that is by the nature of events inexperienced in leadership and diplomacy, but also he has given the necessary impartial chairmanship to the Joint Defence Council and has played a great part in the recent Lahore agreement which might well have not otherwise been implemented.
Secondly, referring to the possible employment of British troops in the Punjab disorders, morally Brigadier Desmond Young is right in saying that British troops should not have stood. aside ; and they certainly might have been allowed to help in a much greater degree than they did with relief measures. But if they had fired on the rioters surely not only would the European civilian population have suffered severe casualties in retribution, but these actions would have been criticised by all the Pakistani and Indian political factions, as were the fair-minded attempts of the British officers of the Indian Army, who tried to keep the peace in the Punjab and who met with universal abuse. The employment of British troops might also have had the most disastrous effects on the future relationship of India and Pakistan with this country.
It seems that your paper as a whole, like most non-Socialist publica- tions, has given too little credit to the present British Government and their agents for the success of their Indian policy. If all their theories and practices of Socialism were wrong or unsuccessful yet this policy will stand out for all time as a great achieVement, perhaps their greatest, and no alternative government in this country, however laudable their intentions, could have succeeded so well in this difficult problem. Under another administration we might have found ourselves fighting with an enormous conscript army against a very large country for the survival of our rule ; which would have had as disastrous an effect on our post-war economy as the fighting in Indonesia is having on that of the Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
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