Letter and statement

Letter from Jawaharlal Nehru, Member for External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations in the Interim Government of India, to Auchinleck, enclosing a statement concerning the future of the Indian Army. In this emphasis is placed on the urgent need to transform the whole background of the Indian Army, to make it feel that it is the national army of India, to remove it from communal associations and narrowly racist interests, and to man it with Indians from top to bottom as soon as possible. It is suggested also that the Indian public should feel that the Army is theirs and not some kind of hostile force imposed upon them. The Army should not be used, therefore, to quell domestic disorder unless this is essential. A stronger police force or a special peace preservation corps should be used for this purpose to relieve the Army from a distasteful duty. This policy applies especially to the North-West Frontier, where the bombing of recalcitrant tribesmen is abhorrent to public opinion and must not be tolerated by a national government except in cases of extreme crisis and danger. India must make her own arrangements for defence, including frontier defence. The British Army should leave India as rapidly as possible. Concern is expressed that the Indian Army should keep abreast of rapid developments in the science of warfare and should not be used to police Japan, Hong Kong, Malaya, Siam, the Netherlands East Indies, Burma, Borneo, Ceylon, Iraq, the Middle East and Italy. Particular resentment is exhibited against the employment of Indian troops in the Netherlands East Indies, where Indian sympathy lies with the Indonesian Republic, and in Iraq where Indian troops have been sent for possible use in Iran. Typescript, signed.