India's Independence and the War

THE failure of the Cripps mission to end the political impasse in India was undoubtedly a serious blow to the United Nations. Whatever reasoning on the India question might have been valid before the present situation took shape, the overriding consideration in the spring of I942 was to enlist India's millions in the world-wide struggle against the Axis. Three months ago PACIFIC AFFAIRS published an article by Kate Mitchell analyzing India's economic potential and the obstacles to its expansion. Since then the course of military events has made increasingly obvious the strategic and political as well as economic importance of India not only in relation to the Far Eastern theatre but to the entire war. If this great sub-continent were actually to be overrun by the invader, the loss to the United Nations might be catastrophic. Not only would they be deprived of huge resources of manpower and material and a place d'armes for an ultimate counter-offensive in continental Asia, but if coincident with a successful Nazi drive from Europe and North Africa the junction of Axis forces in the Middle East would become possible.' Even if the Japanese were to gain points of control only in Bengal, Assam and Ceylon they could sever present and planned supply routes to China via India, and disrupt convoys to the Persian Gulf, thereby weakening the Allied position in the Middle East. The strategic importance of India today hardly requires elaboration. At the same time, in the tug of political warfare India stands at a point of balance. Tokyo's political strategy has been to appeal to the colonial peoples of Asia as their liberator from Western rule. This appeal has not been altogether unsuccessful. In Burma for example, thousands of native nationalists were reported to have helped the Japanese oust the British. Similar Nazi attempts to

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