Word: viceroy
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With the Indian leaders who were not in jail the Viceroy engaged in earnest discussions. But most of the time he listened. With the jailed political prisoners he carried on a correspondence marked by understanding and humanity. Indians accustomed to word-jugglery and nebulous formulas noted with surprise his crisp, matter-of-fact candor. He impressed them as a disciplined, cultured administrator sympathetic to Indian aspirations, less concerned with his office than with Indian good will. To Gandhi (then in jail) he wrote: "I am in entire accord with that aim [Indian self-government] and only seek the best means...
Hating publicity, Wavell was nevertheless the first Viceroy to hold a press conference. Good-humoredly, he adjured photographers to picture his "bad" eye as well as his good. In his first address to the Legislature he criticized the Moslem League's plan for Pakistan (the idea of an independent Moslem state) (see map). Said Wavell bluntly: "No man can alter geography...
...land, trying to feel his way toward solution of its problems. India, he decided last spring, was ripe for self-government. He broached his idea for a modified Cripps Plan (TIME, June 25) to Gandhi and other leaders. Assured of their willingness to consider his scheme, the Viceroy flew to London...
...earnest of his intentions, the Viceroy released eight Congress leaders interned since 1942, invited chosen representatives of all parties to Simla to discuss his plan. The talks proceeded briskly, but stalled on the clause granting organizational parity to Moslems and caste Hindus. Canny Jinnah balked at the prospect of being outvoted in a Hindu-controlled Council. Hastily the factions adjourned for further consideration...
...until that step of high statesmanship had been achieved would India's Viceroy be free to turn to another project -a biography of Belisarius, Byzantine conqueror of the North African Vandals...