Eighty Years Ago This Week

The French National Assembly passed a law table by deputy Felix Houphouët-Boigny abolishing the corvee (forced labour obligation on Africans) in France's African colonies. This was not just a step in dismantling colonialism but the removal of a custom that had its roots in the Ancien Regime.  Houphouët-Boigny went on to become President of the Ivory Coast following its independence.  The British Cabinet delegation met Moslem League leader Jinnah. They proposed a federal structure for post-independence India in which Pakistan would have considerable autonomy. At first the League accepted this and it seemed that an amicable solution might be possible. The confrontation between the Chinese Communists and ruling the Kuomintan, which had bubbled under the surface throughout the war with Japan,  got fully underway in Manchuria. Communist forces moved into Changchun the strategic key to the region.

    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....