Dear friend,
I have your letter of the 28th ultimo enclosing a letter from the Bishop of Calcutta. 17th March will be a suitable day for me to receive you at 4 P.M. at the above address. The Ashram is about four miles from Ahmedabad. Most of the Gadiwalas at the Station know the place.

Yours sincerely,
M.K. Gandhi

Miss Katherine Mayo
c/o Thomas Cook & Sons,
Bombay

Dear friend,
I was glad to receive your letter before you left and gladder still to see that you propose to... the whole matter. Verify for yourself the statement I made and then come to a judgment. That is precisely what I want American friends to do. To take nothing for granted, challenge every statement whether it comes from Indian source or European source and whether they are anti-Indian or pro-Indian, then come to a deliberate conclusion and act upon it.
I send you herewith the quotations from the books whose names you will find at the end of the quotations. If you still have any difficulty in getting hold of the books from which the quotations have been taken, do please let me know. I would want to add also that the statement about poverty of India does not rest merely upon the testimony of the late Sir William Wilson Hunter but it has been confirmed by subsequent observations made both by Indians and Europeans. If you want this information also substantiated by me, I shall be pleased to send you proofs. I also suggest to you a method that even a man in the street may adopt for verification.

1. Is it or is it not true that nearly 80 per cent of the population of India is agricultural and living in remote villages scattered over an area of 1,900 miles long and 1,500 miles broad?

2. Is it or is it not true that these peasants are living in small holdings and often as serfs of big zamindars?

3. Is it or is it not true that the vast majority of them have at least four idle months in the year?

4. Is it or is it not true that before the British rule these very people had hand-spinning and industry ancillary to agriculture which supplemented the slender income they had from agriculture?

5. Is it or is it not true that whilst hand-spinning has been entirely killed no other industry has taken its place? If the answer to all these questions be in the affirmative, no matter what statements might be made by anybody, these agriculturists must be poorer than they were before hand-spinning was destroyed. There are many other causes for the growing poverty of the masses but those that are implied In the questions are, I think, enough for the ordinary inquirer. I have suggested this line of enquiry to you so as to enable you to test the tragic truth of India's growing poverty in many ways.

Yours sincerely,

Dear friend,
I hope you received my previous letter in reply to your enquiry about the sources of my information on poverty of India.
I have now your second letter enclosing copy of your notes. I have tried to fill in the gaps left by you. I have been obliged to do the same somewhat hurriedly but I hope it will answer the purpose.

Yours sincerely,

Miss Katherine Mayo
Bedford Hills
New York

Dear friend,
It was through Mr. Karl Placht that I received sometime ago a copy of your book, Mother India which he sent me with your permission. I really get little time to read any literature but as your book attracted much attention here and gave rise to very bitter and angry comment, and as many correspondents drew my attention to the fact that you had made copious references to my writings and urged me to give my opinion upon your book, I made time to read it through. I am sorry to have to inform you that the book did not leave on my mind at all a nice impression. I have asked the publishers of Young India to send you a copy of my review of your book. If you think that I have done any injustice to you and if you care to draw my attention to it I shall feel thankful to you. As I have not your address by me on my tour I am taking the liberty of sending this to you through Mr. Karl Placht.

Yours sincerely,
M.K. Gandhi