REALITIES IN INDIA
Sitt,—In your issue of January ioth Mr. E. P. Wright suggests that the right policy for the British Government to pursue—would be to inform the Security Council that Britain -will complete the evacuation of India by such-and-such a date, regardless of whether agreement has by then been reached on the constitutional issue or not. At the same time he admits that the result may well be anarchy. India has the largest popula- tion of any country in the world, except China, and the Security Council, in this event, could hardly fail to take action ; but what action could it take except to appoint a Mandatory Power—ourselves or another— to preserve law and order and prevent bloodshed? It would be far better that the appalling cruelties, to both men and women, which attended the recent massacres in Calcutta and Eastern Bengal should be widely known in this country, for then the British public would insist that the protection of the masses from such depths of human misery should take precedence over the demand for power from the politically- minded minority. As one who has served for some years in India, I am unable to believe that British soldiers with Indian experience would favour the abandonment of the Indian masses to the fate which will await them if British troops are withdrawn under present conditions.—Yours
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