845.00/1923: Telegram
Mr. William Phillips, Personal Representative of President Roosevelt in India, to the Secretary of State
[Received April 16—3:52 p. m]
292. There has been considerable comment in the Indian press on Mr. Welles’ letter to the New York Times.44 Both the Nationalist and Muslim League papers generally consider that it expressed the British viewpoint in which they have no confidence. All Indian journals emphasized that a solution of the Indian problem is of concern to the United Nations and is necessary in furtherance of the war effort and as evidence of sincerity of professed war aims of the United Nations. Jinnah’s paper declared that “if the promises of freedom to India made during the last World War provide any bitter memories, enthusiasm cannot be whipped up by the evasive American underwriting of British platitudes”.
A complete summary of press comment is being forwarded by air mail.
- This was a letter dated April 2 and published in the New York Times on April 11, 1942, which the Under Secretary of State wrote publicly to Professor Ralph Barton Perry of Harvard University, in answer to a letter of Professor Perry’s, written February 20, criticizing the Department of State and its policies in certain areas of the world. One of these areas was India, and in his answer the Under Secretary of State repudiated a role of “active intervention” by the United States in the Indian situation.↩