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59. In spite of the deepening crisis of the war, no further serious effort was made to resolve the political deadlock in India until the Simla Conference of 1945. In view of its limited objective, the States were not invited to this Conference. It turned out to be no more than a repeat performance of the Cripps drama; the usual series of conferences, an occasional flicker of hope, the final veto of communal intransigence and a trail of bitterness and frustration.

 

60. The assumption of power by Labour in England, the increasing international complications, the aftermath of the war and the growing realisation of the fact that it was impossible to keep under subjection four hundred millions of exasperated people, brought about a change in the British policy towards India. A Parliamentary Delegation visited India in 1945-46 to gain first hand knowledge of the political situation in this country. On 19th February 1946, the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethick-Lawrence, announced his Government's decision to send a delegation of three Cabinet Ministers to India.

61. The Cabinet Mission, which consisted of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. A. V. Alexander, arrived in India on 23rd March, 1946. In earlier announcements the States had been assured that there was no intention on the part of the Crown to initiate any change in their relationship with the Crown without their consent. It was, however, expected that the consent of the Princes to any changes which might emerge as a result of negotiations would not be unreasonably withheld. In his letter to the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes, dated 12th May, 1946, Lord Wavell repeated the assurance, that there was no intention of making proposals for the entry of States into the Indian set-up, on any basis other than that of negotiation.

62. On 22nd May, 1946, the Cabinet Mission issued the Memorandum dated May 12, 1946, in regard to States' Treaties and Paramountcy (Appendix II); it affirmed that the rights of the States which flowed from their relationship with the Crown would no longer exist and that the rights surrendered by the States to the Paramount Power would revert to the States. The void caused by the lapse of Paramountcy was to be filled either by the States entering into a federal relationship with the successor Government or Governments in British India, or by entering into particular political arrangements with it or them. The memorandum also referred