845.01/173: Telegram
The Personal Representative of the President in India (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 29—8:25 a.m.]
239. For the President and the Secretary. Formula referred to in my 219 of April 25, 11 a.m. not yet received. Cripps’ London press comments as reported here have decreased chances for formula for the moment and the action of the Government of India herein below reported has further greatly complicated matters.
Government has just prohibited by Executive decree the printing or publishing of the following resolution passed today by the Congress Working Committee and recommended by it to All India Congress Committee.
“The Committee has noted the recent extraordinary happenings in Lower Burma and notably in the city of Rangoon, when though actual military operations were still some distance away, the whole civil administration suddenly collapsed and those in charge of it sought their own safety and abandoned their posts just when their presence was most needed. Private motor cars were commandeered for the evacuation of high officials and Europeans, leaving their owners stranded and unprovided for. The police force discharged or withdrawn to other places, habitual and other criminals were released from prisons, and the lunatics allowed to go out of their asylums. The city of Rangoon was thus left not only without any civil administration but at the mercy of lunatics, hardened criminals, and other anti-social elements. Even previously at the time of the air raids, it had been evident that the ARP organization did not function and no thought had been given to the problem of organized evacuation, food supply or shelter. A situation was thus created which involved the citizens of [Page 646] Rangoon in utmost misery and desolation, and which was discreditable in the extreme to the Government and its high officials.
As war approaches India, the lessons of Rangoon and Lower Burma are full of meaning for this country, for the same type of official wields authority here and the recent astonishing exhibition of panic and incompetence in Madras demonstrates the dangers arising from inefficient and irresponsible officials who have in addition no contacts with the people of the country. Recent orders passed and circulars issued on behalf of various provincial governments indicate that they are obsessed with making provision for the safety of the higher civil officials and their removal from places of immediate danger. Little thought appears to have been given to the drawing up of well prepared schemes for possible evacuation of a particular area and the arrangement of transport, housing and food supply in a time of emergency. It is the misfortune of India at this crisis in her history not only to have a foreign government, but a government which is incompetent and incapable of organizing her defence properly or of providing for the safety and essential needs of her people.
As no reliance can be placed on the central or provincial government’s functioning in India now to act effectively and intelligently in times of emergency, it becomes the especial duty of the people to rely upon and organize themselves for this purpose. The Congress programme of self-sufficiency and self-protection is the essential foundation for self-reliance and the avoidance as far as possible of many of the evils that follow in the train of war. On this programme, therefore, the people must concentrate themselves. In the larger cities where special problems arise, schemes should be worked out with the help of experts in regard to food supply and the other measures that may be necessary in time of emergency. In particular all panic should be avoided even though those in authority give way to it.”
Of course, prohibiting publication will cause it to have widest underground circulation. Tension will increase by the hour particularly if Government bans other Congress resolutions. When news of Japanese continuing successes in Burma as reported to the War Department from here today (but not told India) reaches public, we will be sitting on the powder keg.