Abstract

A British Reply to Louis Fischer

The thesis of Louis Fischer's two articles, "Why Cripps Failed," published previously in the periodical "The Nation," is that political leader Richard Stafford Cripps promised the Indian leaders a National Government functioning as a Cabinet, subject to no overriding powers by the Viceroy, and that on April 9, 1942, instructions from London, England, compelled Stafford to withdraw his promise. That is Fischer's thesis. It is a simple thesis, but it is a wholly false one. Its falsity is established by published documents of the negotiations, by the course of the negotiations, and by admissions in Fischer's own articles. Documents published by both the British government and the National Congress Party wholly contradict Fischer.