Letter

Letter from Auchinleck to Lord Wavell, the Viceroy, expressing his disquiet at the tendency among certain civil officials, notably the Governor of the Central Provinces, to compare recent cases of mutiny and indiscipline in the Armed Forces of India, and the measures to be taken to restore discipline in these cases, with the formation and treatment of the so-called INA. He indicates that the circumstances are totally different, the INA being created under the auspices of an enemy at a time when all the usual machinery of discipline and control, to which the men concerned were accustomed, had been removed, and when those who formed the INA pretended to be freeing India from a so-called foreign oppressor. He states that acts of indiscipline committed by sailors, soldiers and airmen serving in units and establishments in India at the present time cannot in any way be justified by the circumstances surrounding the formation and operation of the INA. And he maintains his right to punish indiscipline in order to maintain the morale of the Armed Forces of India, and to deter others from taking similar indisciplined action in the future. Typescript, signed.