Item 203 - Carbon copy of a memorandum by Sir George Schuster headed ‘India. Note on action taken as a sequel to the meeting of the All-Party Group of M.P.s on Tuesday, October 21st’

While the draft letter to Amery was being circulated he submitted a copy of it to Amery himself, who, contrary to the group’s original agreement, communicated the substance of their suggestion to the Viceroy (Linlithgow).

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Transcript

INDIA

Note on action taken as a sequel to the meeting of the All-Party Group of M.P.s on Tuesday, October 21st.

As arranged at the meeting I circulated a draft for a letter to Mr. Amery. {1} Simultaneously, in order to save time, I sent a copy of the draft to Mr. Amery explaining clearly that this was only my own draft and had not yet received the approval of the other members. I sent it to him be-cause I thought it would be valuable if he could let me have his own private reactions before the final form of letter was settled. As I did not receive any acknowledgment to my letter from Mr. Amery I asked him to see me on November 5th. He then told me that he had actually communicated the substance of the suggestion to the Viceroy, but, as a matter of fact, when he saw me he was not quite clear in his memory as to whether he had telegraphed to the Viceroy or included a paragraph in an Air Mail letter. I explained to him that this was not in accordance with what I had settled with my colleagues as I had intended to communicate with them again before a letter was actually sent in to him. In the result, however, it does not make much difference, and we must now await the Viceroy’s reply.

GS

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{1} Cf. PETH 3/200.