Letter and report

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 133 AUC/1113
  • Dates of Creation
      19 Nov 1945
  • Physical Description
      Letter: 1 leaf; report: 2 leaves.

Scope and Content

Letter from Col. K.S. Himatsinhji to Auchinleck, informing him of a meeting with Bhulabhai Desai, a prominent member of the INA Defence Committee, at the Chemsford Club on 15 November. Typescript, signed.

With a report of the gist of the conversation which took place on that occasion, in the course of which Desai declared that the INA trials have provided Indian nationalists with a most powerful weapon; that, if any of those who are being tried are subsequently executed, they will become India's greatest martyrs; that an armed revolution could ensue, that the formation and operation of the INA proved to the country that Indians were capable of training and commanding their own army, that the officers imprisoned in the Red Fort were treated at the level of Indian sergeants, not officers; and that, according to some reliable authorities, the Commander-in-Chief was responsible for insisting that the trials should take place, despite pressure on the Government to stop them. Typescript.