INDIA AND THE CONSERVATIVES
SIR,—Captain Quinton Hogg, the Conservative candidate for Oxford City, was reported in the Oxford Mail of June 23, 1945, as saying that "by decent Indians, he meant those who were his comrades in the Army, and not the Congress-wallahs who would have given up their country to the Japanese," which is of course a straightforward slander. Captain Hogg is at present a Junior Minister of the Crown. Through the Tory Reform Committee, he wields a great deal of power among the Conservatives. It
is therefore highly Improbable that he should have taken it upon himself to make such a hostile pronouncement regarding the Congress, especially when the Congress is in conference with the Viceroy, without proper authority from the Tory Central Office.
I have received many anxious inquiries on this point. Do the Tories intend to break up the continuity of British policy towards India, which was formulated by the Coalition Cabinet, and which, by common consent, was left out of the hazards of party politics? Captain Hogg's violent attacks on the Congress, just at this particular moment, are unwise from a psychological point of view ; but, more than that, do they foreshadow a possible change in H.M. Government's India policy, if the Conservatives should win a majority? As a voter and as one whose job it is to keep India informed of these developments, I feel this point should be immediately clarified in the interests of Commonwealth co-operation in the achievement of a quick victory over Japan, and for future prosperity. Has the Tory Central Office a private policy for India, based on hatred and hostility, to replace the Wavell plan? Every voter has a right to
know it.—Yours faithfully, D. M. SEN, Secretary, Indian Journalists' and Writers' Association. 16, Turf Street, Oxford.
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