Three Main Problems Will Face Wavell in India

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 222, 18 September 1943, Page 5

Three Main Problems Will Face Wavell in India

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 16. The new Viceroy of India, Viscount Archibald Wavell, addressing the Pilgrims Society in London to-day, said that he would find three main problems facing him when he arrived in India. These were: 1. The need to carry the war with Japan to a decisive, speedy victory. 2. To deal with the day-to-day problems of the Government, economic ana social, which were so vital to India. 3. There was the political advance ment of India which to many appeared the most important problem of all. “I can say no more than that I fully realise that there is a great weight ol opinion both here and in India in favour of loosening as early as possible the present deadlock, and also the dilficuKy of doing so,” Viscount Wavell said.

T le new Viceroy paid a high tribute to India for her war contribution, saying that without the assistance of India, bot i in troops and material, the Allies mo t certainly could not have held the Mil .die East “which has been, I think I may claim, the keystone of our present successes. For this the Umteu Nations owe India a considerable debt, which I am sure they will not forget, ’ he said.

The latest developments and the esta olishment of a combined command for South-East Asia would make the British and American cooperation even closer in India, which was one of the principal

bases for the common effort against Japan.

Viscount Wavell added: “The war will not be over and there can be no military or economic security for the East, for ourselves or for the world, until Japan is as thoroughly defeated as Germany.”