" WAVELL'S , OPPORTUNITY, SIR,—I have read with interest the
leading article, " Wavell's Oppor- tunity," in' your issue of June 25th. While your summary' of the present situation is one with which many of very different views can agree, there are certain implications inherent in your statement that must cause anxiety to a large number of people in this country. The vast majority will agree that the goal of all policy. in India must be directed toward " the earliest possible realisation of self-government in India " ; and that ." the supreme part in that evolution is India's." Where, however, some of us must differ from you is in your emphasis on the suggestion that.natiorial unity and agreement on essentials are prior conditions of the Indian. leaders taking their. part in this evolution. Surely, Sir, to suggest these as the basic principles on which the new Viceroy must act is not only to assert that " Sir Archibald Wavell will find himself frustrated as Sir Stafford Cripps," but also to deny the most elementary democratic rights of differing opinion.
The very fact there is so much general agreement that the efforts of Sir Stafford Cripps ended in frustration must point to the conclusion that nothing short of a new approach can avail. Can we assert that the Indian peoples are incapable of attaining political unity until the attempt to reach it has been made by these peoples themselves? Can we expect them to achieve it while many of their leaders are political prisoners? If the answer to both these questions is "No," what can be done to create a positive policy? I submit three things. First, the release of ail political prisoners and the re-establishment of the elected Legislative Assemblies in the provinces ; secondly, the transfer of power to a government led by such a man as Sapru, Jinnah or Nehru, or composed of the-eleven elected Provincial Prime Ministers of India ; and, thirdly, the creation of the control of the armed forces of India by a treaty freely entered into between Great Britain and such a government.—Yours, &c.,
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