845.00/1795: Telegram

Mr. William Phillips, Personal Representative of President Roosevelt in India, to the Secretary of State

144. Referring to my number 136 of February 13, 2 p.m. The American correspondents were received this afternoon by Sir Reginald Maxwell, home member of the Viceroy’s Council. In the course of his statement, he said that Congress “is the enemy” and that the correspondents would not be permitted to send out dispatches which placed either Gandhi or Congress “in a favorable light”. The correspondents emphasized their feelings of responsibility to present to the American public a factual picture of the situation in India and complained that they were not even permitted to send some of the reports regarding Gandhi appearing in the local papers.

Phillips