The first personal meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill at Teheran in November 1943, decided the strategy of the European war for 1944, while the conference held in the same month in Cairo between Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt and Churchill was conclusive evidence of the importance attached to the war against Japan by Great Britain and U.S.A. India’s contribution to the campaigns in the Mediterranean her difficulties, and her post war prospects were the themes of Lord Wavell’s first public speech as Viceroy.
Declaration of Teheran, Signed by Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill on December 1st 1943.
We the President of the United States of America, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, have met these four days past in the capital of our ally Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy.
We expressed our determination that our nations shall work together in war and in peace that will follow.
As to war our military staffs have joined in our roundtable discussions and we have concerted our plans for the destruction of the German forces.
We have reached complete agreement as to the scope and timing of the operations which will be undertaken from the East, West, and South.
The common understanding which we have here reached guarantees that victory will be ours.
And as to peace, we are sure that our concord will make it an enduring peace.
We recognize fully the supreme responsibility resting upon us and all the United Nations to make peace that will command the good will of the overwhelming masses of the peoples of the world and banish the scourge and terror of war for many generations .
With our diplomatic advisers we have surveyed the problems of the future.
We shall seek the co-operation and the active participation of all nations, large and small, whose peoples, in heart and mind are dedicated, as are our own peoples, to the elimination of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance .
We will welcome them as they may choose to come into a world family of democratic nations.
No power on earth can prevent our destroying the German armies by land, their U-boats by sea, and their war plants from the air.
Our attacks will be relentless and increasing.
From these friendly conferences we look with confidence to the day when all peoples of the world may live free lives, untouched by tyranny and according to their varying desires and their own consciences.
We came here with hope and determination; we leave here friends in fact, in spirit and in purpose.
Official Announcement on Anglo Sino American Collaboration Issued in Cairo, December 1st 1943.
President Roosevelt, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and the Prime Minister, Mr Churchill, together with their respective military and diplomatic advisers, have completed a conference in North Africa.
The following general statement has been issued.
The several military missions have agreed upon future military operations against Japan.
The three great Allies expressed their resolve to bring unrelenting pressure against their brutal enemies by sea, land, and air. This pressure is already rising.
The three great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan.
They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion.
It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first world war in 1914, and that all the territories that Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall berestored to the Republic of China.
Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed.
The aforesaid three Great Powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.
With these objectives in view the three Allies in harmony with those of the United Nations at war with Japan, will continue to persevere in the serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.
Lord Wavell Speaks to the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Calcutta on India’s War Effort and Post War Plans, December 20th 1943.
I should like to begin my first public speech as Viceroy by acknowledging again the services rendered to me in the Middle East during the early part of the war, not only by Indian troops but by Indian industry, which supplied so many of our needs…
Indian help saved the Middle East at a critical time…
We have every reason for sober confidence in a victorious outcome of the war in Europe in the not too distant future….
But the end of the war in the West is no more than the beginning of the war in the East on a scale required to bring about the defeat and unconditional surrender of Japan….
The war effort and preparations we have already made have placed severe strains upon our national economy and we must take steps to make this stable to support the strains of the next year.
The food problem must be our first concern…
The first thing to get clear about food is that it is not a provincial problem; it is an all India, and even a world problem….
If by administrative negligence we are compelled to ask for more help from abroad than we really need, we are expecting other countries, whose people are already rationed, and whose prices are properly controlled, to deny themselves unnecessarily…
It is our plain duty to set up an efficient food administration…
Key points in our plan are full rationing in the larger towns and control prices….
It is said by some that urban rationing is unnecessary and impossible in India.
This is nonsense.
It is very necessary and quite possible…
In Bengal, the aid given by the Army coupled with the prospects of a bountiful aman harvest have eased the position perceptibly.
But there are no grounds for complacency.
We still have to fright lack of confidence and greed, and to see that administrative action is adequate for the future.
The Army cannot remain indefinitely to do the work of the civil administration.
Bengal has the sympathy of the world at present, but this will not continue unless it is obvious that she making every effort to help herself….
The years after the war are going to be of immense import to India’s future …
The Government has in hand the preparation of plans to take advantage of India’s opportunities in as great a measure as possible…
In this the Government and industry must work very closely hand in hand …..
Development must be on an Indian basis and by Indian methods.
But Indian will require assistance and advice at first to help her to realize the great possibilities that are hers…
It seems to me that one of the first necessities is to develop power schemes throughout India to provide the driving force for industries.
In some instances it may be possible to combine this with irrigation schemes for agriculture, the improvement of which by all possible means must be our principal aim…
The development of industry and the improvement of agriculture must go hand in hand in order to provide for India’s growing population and to raise the standard of living…
I have said nothing of the constitutional or political problems of India, not because they are not constantly in my mind…
But because I do not believe that I can make their solution any easier by talking about them just at present.
For the time being I concentrate on the job of work we have to do.
The winning of the war, the organization of the economic home front, and the preparations for peace….
If we can co-operate now in the achievement of the great administrative aims which should be common to all parties when the country is in pearl, we shall do mush to produce conditions in which the solution of the political deadlock will be possible….
