The Road to Simla

In Simla, India's cool summer capital, an old Harrovian, Indian Nationalist Jawaharlal Nehru, and other Indian leaders will confer this week with Viceroy

Lord Wavell on the interim plan for India's independence.

That the resentful Congress party would consent even to meet the Viceroy was a hopeful sign. Its principal conference delegates (ex-President Nehru and current President Maulana Abul Kalam Azad) had only just emerged from three years in jail--Nehru greyer and grimmer, Azad 46 lbs. lighter. Fellow Delegate Mohandas K. Gandhi, who ended his prison term 13 months ago, also gave the meeting his cautious blessing. Said he: "It would be a mistake to jump to a hasty conclusion that the Viceroy's proposals are good fortune for India. It would also be a mistake to dismiss them without proper consideration."

Hardest pill for the Congress party to swallow was the clause in the Wavell Plan (TIME, May 21) fixing equal representation for Moslems and caste Hindus in the new Executive Council. Congress preferred organizational parity with the Moslem League; otherwise, it argued, its many Moslem members (e.g., President Azad) would have to look to the League instead of to Congress for representation. But Moslem League President Mohamed Ali Jinnah liked the parity plan as proposed, made no comment.

At week's end the delegates set out in their respective ways on the road to Simla: Congress President Azad by air; League President Jinnah in a first-class, air-conditioned, coach; Mohandas K. Ghandi in a third-class railway compartment.

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