845.01/203: Telegram
The Officer in Charge at New Delhi ( Merrell ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 15—4:08 p.m.]
374. Conversations between Gandhi, Nehru and Azad88a at Wardha are drawing to a close. The impression given by Gandhi’s statements in Harijan and to American correspondents is that he had definitely decided to launch a movement designed to implement his recommendation that the British withdraw from India but what form the movement would take is not made clear and may not yet have been defined. In June 7 Harijan Gandhi wrote “I feel that I cannot afford to wait, I have decided that even at certain risks which are obviously involved I must ask the people to resist;” to the Associated Press correspondent, he stated that he was going to start a movement which would be felt all over the world and that it would occupy British attention. He would not or could not tell the American journalists what specific action he was planning.
The telegram which follows quotes excerpts from the June 14 Harijan on this subject.
Nehru … seems … to act somewhat as a moderating influence on Gandhi notwithstanding his endorsement of Gandhi’s demand for British withdrawal and the statement attributed to him that “we would not like the American Army landing in India and overrunning this country”. It may be significant that since talking with Nehru the Mahatma has several times protested that (his) program did not constitute a virtual invitation to the Japanese to enter India.
- Maulana Azad, President of the Congress Party.↩