East and West and the disaster which awaits a failure to supply their adequate solution by
realizing and expressing the principle of Government for which we stand. We must then
go on to suggest a treatment of India in the general work of Imperial reconstruction in
harmony with the facts adduced in the foregoing chapters. And all this must be done with
the closest attention to its effects upon educated opinion here. We must do our best to
make Indian Nationalists realize the truth that like South Africa all their hopes and
aspirations are dependent on the maintenance of the British Commonwealth and their
permanent membership therein.”
This letter, written on 13 November 1916, was addressed to Philip Kerr but was
intended for all the members of the Group. Sir Valentine Chirol corrected the draft, and
copies were made available for Meston and Marris. Then Curtis had a thousand copies
printed and sent to Kerr for distribution. In some way, the extremist Indian nationalists
obtained a copy of the letter and published a distorted version of it. They claimed that a
powerful and secret group organized about
spy out the nationalist plans in order to obstruct them. Certain sentences from the letter
were torn from their context to prove this argument. Among these was the reference to
Central Africa, which was presented to the Indian people as a statement that they were as
uncivilized and as incapable of self-government as Central Africans. As a result of the
fears created by this rumor, the Indian National Congress and the Moslem League formed
their one and only formal alliance in the shape of the famous Lucknow Compact of 29
December 1916. The Curtis letter was not the only factor behind the Lucknow agreement,
but it was certainly very influential. Curtis was present at the Congress meeting and was
horrified at the version of his letter which was circulating. Accordingly, he published the
correct version with an extensive commentary, under the title
who govern the whole British Commonwealth to do anything in their power to enable
Indians to govern themselves as soon as possible. (2) That Indians must also come to
share in the government of the British Commonwealth as a whole." There can be no
doubt that Curtis was sincere in this and that his view reflected, perhaps in an extreme
form, the views of a large and influential group in Great Britain. The failure of this group
to persuade the Indian nationalists that they were sincere is one of the great disasters of
the century, although the fault is not entirely theirs and must be shared by others,
including Gandhi.
In the first few months of 1917, Curtis consulted groups of Indians and individual
British (chiefly of the Milner Group) regarding the form which the new constitution
would take. The first public use of the word "dyarchy" was in an open letter of 6 April
1917, which he wrote to Bhupendra Nath Basu, one of the authors of the Lucknow
Compact, to demonstrate how dyarchy would function in the United Provinces. In writing
this letter, Curtis consulted with Valentine Chirol and Malcolm Hailey. He then wrote an
outline, "The Structure of Indian Government," which was revised by Meston and
printed. This was submitted to many persons for comment. He then organized a meeting
of Indians and British at Lord Sinha's house in Darjeeling and, after considerable
discussion, drew up a twelve-point program, which was signed by sixty-four Europeans
and ninety Indians. This was sent to Chelmsford and to Montagu.
In the meantime, in London, preparations were being made to issue the historic
declaration of 20 August 1917, which promised "responsible" government to India. There
can be no doubt that the Milner Group was the chief factor in issuing that declaration.
Curtis, in
principle of that pronouncement was assumed in 1915." It is perfectly clear that Montagu
(Secretary of State in succession to Austen Chamberlain from June 1917) did not draw up
the declaration. He drew up a statement, but the India Office substituted for it one which
had been drawn up much earlier, when Chamberlain was still Secretary of State. Lord
Ronaldshay (Lord Zetland), in the third volume of his
and claims that the one which was finally issued was drawn up by Curzon. Sir Stanley
Reed, who was editor of
the Royal Institute of International Affairs in 1926 that the declaration was drawn up by
Milner and Curzon. It is clear that someone other than Curzon had a hand in it, and the
strongest probability would be Milner, who was with Curzon in the War Cabinet at the
time. The fact is that Curzon could not have drawn it up alone unless he was unbelievably