Word: staffords
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Carrots and umbrellas. Sir Stafford Cripps. India. Empire. Dominion...
...When Sir Stafford Cripps came to India, C. R. led the moderate faction in the Congress that favored accepting the proposal with minor changes, leaving details to be settled later. If the Congress had voted before the fall of Singapore, before the fall of Burma, and before the Japs began bombing India itself, C. R. might have carried the day, but he was overruled by a faction of defeatists and alarmists who did not want to accept power and its responsibility on the eve of invasion. So, paradoxically, the Congress rejected Britain's offer ostensibly because...
...time it was thought that the energetic stranger from the U.S. would be a great help to Sir Stafford. But soon, significantly, Pandit Nehru told the press: "We have not asked for anyone's intervention. For my part, I admire President Roosevelt and consider he has been shouldering a very great burden worthily...
...then the sorry news was out. The Congress at first had objected to Britain's demand that control of India's war effort remain in British hands. Sir Stafford compromised by suggesting that the Defense Minister be an Indian, while control of the strategic and operational spheres be left with the British Commander in Chief, General Sir Archibald Wavell...
...rivalry for local power between the Congress and the Moslem League was plainer than ever. There were rumors that Pandit Nehru had led a Congress minority which favored accepting Britain's compromise, that the Moslem League had been ready to accept until the Congress decided to reject. Sir Stafford implied as much when he said : "Negotiations have been pro longed in the case of the Congress only." Though his great mission had failed, it was likely that his three weeks in India, and his account of them, had only in creased his stature in the world...