Eighty Years Ago This Week

    The British government warned the public that it might be necessary to ration bread because of a poor harvest. Bread had remained off-ration throughout the war although propaganda encouraged people to eat less of it. With much of Europe in a state of near famine North American exports had to be sacrificed. Nonetheless this was a powerful sign that austerity had become more severe during peacetime. At a mass rally of the Moslem League, its leader Jinnah, gave a hard-line speech setting down a marker ahead of the  deliberations of the British Cabinet delegation in India to set a path to independence. He proclaimed that the League would not accept any proposal which derogated from the full sovereignty of Pakistan, then a broad term embracing the whole Muslim community of the sub-continent. He inisted that Pakistan's status would have to be established before talks began. He described the mainly Hindu Congress party as fascist. In practice he was demanding full partition....