EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NICHOLAS MASERGH. ASSISTANT EDITOR THE LATE E. W. R. LUMBY - Constitutional Relations Between Britain and India. The Transfer of Power 1942-7. Volume IV. The Bengal Famine and the New Viceroyalty. 15 June 1943-31 August 1944

London England, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Very Good/Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall 0115800794 Hardback Hardback. First Edition. Ex-York Public Library with ex-library markings. Slight foxing to edge. Wear and a couple of small tears to edges of D/J. Browning to spine of D/J. A large Heavy book extra postage may be required overseasThe fourth volume in this series covers the concluding weeks of Lord Linlithgow's long Viceroyalty and the first en moths of Lord Wavell's regime. In Delhi there was, if not a new policy, at least a new style. Where the outgoing Viceroy appeared well pleased with the comparative political tranquility that derived from continuance of the 'so-called deadlock on the political stage', his successor from the outset stressed the need for initiatives that on the longer term would contribute to a settlement of the consitutional question, and obtained, though with some difficulty, a Cabinet directive dated 8 October 1943 which gave him some limited freedom of action in this respect. In pursuit of such purposes, and not least by exchanges with Gandhi after his release from prison in May 1944 in the light of medical opinion that he was unlikely to be an 'active factor' in politics again, the Viceroy provoked misgivings in Cabinet and Churchillian reproof. But he showed himself in this and in other matters, notably in pressing for the diversion of additional food supplies to India, a man not easily to be deflected from his considered course. In respect of the Bengal families the documentation reflects the strains, almost to breaking point, which the famine and its aftermath imposed upon the Bengal government and administration and records inter alia the reactions of the Government of India to the disaster including the timing and nature of its representations to the War Cabinet, the complexities and practical problems involved in getting food supplies to India as seen by the War Cabinet confronted, as it was, with competing claims on limited supplies of food and even greater scarcity in allied shipping resources, and the circumstances surrounding the appointments of the Australian, R. G. Caseyu, as Governor of Bengal. In this as in earlier volumes, the proceedings of the War Cabinet and of certain of its committees are reprinted as well as correspondence between the Secretary of Sate and the Viceory and extracts from the reports of Governors. Contents: Foreword. Introduction to Volume IV. Abbreviations. Principal Holders of Office. Chronological Table of Principal Events. Summary of Documents. Documents. Appendix. Glossary. Index of Persons. Index of Subjects. Illustrated. Map at the end of volume India 1943-4. Rare and hard-to-come by book. 1295+ pp.