96A. From Lord Mountbatten

The Viceroy's House,
New Delhi,
12th June 1947

DEAR MR. GANDHI,

Thank you for your letter of 10/11th June. I am grateful to you for your comments on current affairs, and I will certainly bear them in mind.

I doubt whether it would be practicable to make my special staff work out all the details of the splitting up of the Departments of the Government of India and a complete allotment of India's assets and liabilities, but they will do everything in their power to help. It is a tremendous task and only a fraction of it can be done before the transfer of power. It is essentially a matter in which there must be negotiation between the parties concerned.

I am so grateful for your unfailing advice and support and kindness, which have done so much to sustain me in this difficult task

Yours sincerely,
MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA

MR. GANDHI

Mahatma Gandhi-Correspondence with the Government - 1944-'47, pp. 258-59