Item 70 - Draft of a letter from Lord Pethick-Lawrence to Clement Attlee

1 single sheet

India Office.—Denies having said anything to justify the rumour mentioned in the attached telegram (see 5/71). As the Cabinet Mission was not as successful as they had hoped, he has decided to continue as Secretary of State.

Transcript

India Office, Whitehall
Sept 6. 46.

My dear Clem,

The enclosed telegram has come this morning from the Viceroy and I think it my duty to send it across to you at once.

I have never said anything to anybody even in private which would justify the rumours to which the Viceroy refers.

You will appreciate tht the burden I hav to bear is a very heavy one & had the Mission to India been as successful as at one time it appeared to be and is still thought by many people to have been I might have approached you with a view to your relieving me of it at a time most convenient to yourself & HMG. As things have turned out less favourably & we are faced with exceedingly grave issues it seems to me tht it would be running away for me to propose to leave the ship at this critical juncture & tht so long as I can stand up to the strain & you wish me to stay I ought to continue at my post.

If however you yourself should take a different view you will find no unwillingness on my part to being replaced by a younger man. If that were so I feel there is great force in what the Viceroy says in the other part of his telegram.

I am keeping the appointment you have made for me at 12 o’c today but I wished you to read this letter first

Yours sincerely
Pethick

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The shortened words, e.g. ‘tht’ and ‘hav’, are in the MS.

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.