Appendix 4

On the third day of Gandhiji's fast, the Government of India in a communique announced that it had decided to pay Pakistan immediately the sum of rupees 55 crores. While justifying "on legal and other grounds" the position they had taken up before, they challenged the arguments advanced by the Pakistan Government as being contrary to facts. The communique went on to say:

The Government have shared the world-wide anxiety over the fast undertaken by....the Father of the Nation. In common with him they have anxiously searched for ways and means to bury the hatchet of ill-will, prejudice and suspicion, which has poisoned the relations of India and Pakistan. Impelled by earnest desire to help in every way open to them in the object which Gandhiji has at heart, the Government have sought for some tangible and striking contribution to the movement for ending the physical suffering of the Nation's soul and to turn the nation's mind from the present distemper, bitterness and suspicion to constructive and creative effort. The Government are anxious to remove as far as possible, without detriment to the national good, every cause which leads to friction between India and Pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase by Pyarelal Vol.II, p 718