CONGRESS POLICY
Sta,—May I answer some of the misstatements about India made by your correspondents, Messrs. Bentall and Johnson?
(t) India can never enjoy the freedom promised to her as long as japan occupies Burma and Malaya. Everyone knows Japan's ghastly record, and yet Congress would hand over India to share the fate of Korea, Manchuria, Formosa, and occupied China.
(2) Mr. Bentall acknowledges that Gandhi was prepared to stab England in the back in order to be on the winning side. I am glad to see that he places the Congress leaders in the same category as Laval and Quisling. We have one point on which we agree!
(3) Congress before the war was loud in its denunciations of "appease-
ment," and of its protestations of friendship with China and Russia. Yet it is now prepared to betray both these nations.
(4) The absurdity of the claim that Congress " represents" India has been so often pointed out that it is only necessary to mention one point. The new Indian army, now nearly two million strong, is a voluntary force ; unlike the old professional army, it is recruited from all classes and officered by young Indians who were yesterday civilians, just as in England. Perhaps that is why Gandhi has announced his decision so disband them as soon as he assumes dictatorship. It is certainly a very inconvenient answer to the assertions of Congress that India is against the war and that we have disarmed the nation.
- (5) The statement that India resernb:es occupied France is simply silly. India is just as much an integral part of the British Commonwealth as French Canada or what was formerly the Transvaal.
(6) Congress leaders, if they wish to consult, can walk out of gaol tomorrow if they give the required assurance to renounce civil dis- obedience or similar attempts to sabotage the war effort. To release them in order to carry on their former activities would be a betrayal of the
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