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“Did you tell that to Cripps?” I inquired.

“Yes,” he answered. “I said to Cripps, ‘You performed a miracle in Russia.’”

“Why did you say that?” I interrupted. “It wasn’t Sir Stafford Cripps who brought Russia into the war, but a gentleman named Adolf Hitler.”

Gandhi laughed, and his friends laughed. “But I and thousands of Indians,” he protested, “believed that it was Cripps who performed the miracle.”

“Didn’t Cripps protest when you said that?” I asked.

“No,” Gandhi said laughingly, “he took the compliment. We thought Stalin had asked for British aid before the invasion of Russia.”

“No, that is not correct,” I said. “After the invasion, Russia got help and is now obtaining in creasing help from America and Britain. But before the attack, Stalin, fearing Hitler, could show no friendship for Britain or for Cripps.”

“In any case,” Gandhi continued, “I asked Cripps to perform a miracle here too, but it was not in his power.”

I said, “I think there is a vast popular ferment going on in England. I flew to England last summer and stayed nine weeks. The mass of the people are resolved not to be ruled after the war by the sort of people who ruled them before the war and brought on this war. Cripps could become the ex-