A recent acquisition to the India Office Private Papers has now been catalogued and is available for researchers to view in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies reading room.  The collection consists of the papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Under-Secretary of State for India 1914-1915.

Sketch of Charles Roberts in the Westminster Gazette July 1923 Mss Eur F770/5/9 f.8

Charles Roberts was born on 22 August 1865, the son of the Rev Albert Roberts, Vicar of Tidebrook and Ellen Wace of Wadhurst.  He was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.  He was also a fellow at Exeter College, Oxford and taught there from 1889 to 1895.  Roberts was involved in Liberal politics from an early age and tried unsuccessfully to be elected as a Liberal Party MP to the seats of Wednesbury in 1895 and Lincoln in 1900. 

House of Commons Voting Record for Roberts 1906 Mss Eur F770/2/1 f.1

His third attempt was successful, and he became Liberal MP for Lincoln in the 1906 general election, a seat he held until 1918.  He held a number of posts in government in that time, including Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Comptroller of the Household 1915-1916, Chairman of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee 1915-1916, and was a member of the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918.

Letter from Gandhi to Roberts about the Indian Volunteer Corps Mss Eur F770/1/23 f.32

The collection includes letters to Roberts while he was at the India Office, often relating to the routine work of the office, such as arranging meetings with visitors, requests for passes to the House of Commons and other Parliamentary business, but there are also fascinating letters from individuals requesting assistance.  Roberts was Under Secretary at the India Office at the outbreak of the First World War, and many of the letters he received dealt with military matters relating to the Indian Expeditionary Force and the hospitals for Indian soldiers.  There are also a few letters relating to Roberts’ other interests such as Liberal politics, Temperance matters, National Health Insurance and Indian constitutional reform.  Included are letters from prominent British politicians and leading Indian figures, such as Winston Churchill, H H Asquith, Edwin Samuel Montagu, Sir Charles Hardinge, Sir William Wedderburn, Gandhi, Bhupendra Nath Basu, Cornelia Sorabji, and Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar.

Notes by Roberts for his India Budget Speech 1914 Mss Eur F770/3/1

As a prominent politician and member of the Government, Roberts was often required to make speeches, such as his 1914 speech in the House of Commons on the India Budget, and some of his rough preparatory notes survive.  The collection contains his notes for speeches and talks he gave on a variety of subjects, such as education, Indian finance, Indian and the War, constitutional reform in India, Tibet, and the Liberal Party and liberalism.  The collection also includes many official papers from his time in government, including copies of private telegrams between the Secretary of State for India and the Viceroy of India, and copies of telegrams from Sir Percy Cox, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Resident at Aden.  There are papers on subjects such as the Excise Administration in India, Indian wheat exports, the response in India to British Government policy towards Turkey, and the Government of India policy on local self-government.  There is also a report on a deputation of members of the Indian National Congress who visited the India Office in May 1914, which included Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Memo by Roberts on his meeting with the Indian National Congress Deputation May 1914 Mss Eur F770/2/9 f.17

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Liberal Politician, Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Mss Eur F770 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.

Roberts' papers relating to the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918 and the Financial Relations Committee 1919-1920 can be found at Mss Eur F170 – a list for this collection can be found on The National Archives' Discovery catalogue.

The social issues publicised in two plays by John Galsworthy suggest he should be remembered for his philanthropy, not just for writing The Forsyte Saga.

The personal papers of John Galsworthy (1867-1933) have been acquired by the British Library and are now fully catalogued (Add MS 89733).  Although relatively unknown today, Galsworthy was a big name during his lifetime, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

John Galsworthy by an unknown photographer, circa 1929 NPG x14353 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

John did not write for fame and financial success, but realised his popularity gave him a platform to support causes close to his heart.  Galsworthy’s compassionate nature was reflected in the subjects he was inspired to write about.  Beyond the subtle satire of the acquisitive middle class in A Man of Property and the other Forsyte novels, it was John’s plays that most obviously brought social issues to the fore.

Annotated typescript of The Silver Box giving Jones’ response to his sentence - Add MS 89733/2/10 f. 126

In 1907 his debut play, The Silver Box, utilised Galsworthy’s legal training to highlight prejudices in the British justice system.  When an unemployed labourer, Jones, takes a cigarette box as well as a purse he knows was stolen by the son of an MP, the truth is suppressed to spare the young gentleman’s reputation.  In court the case partly rests on their drunken recollections of meeting in the early hours of the morning.  Although Jones cries: 'My word’s as good as yours', his physical defence of his wife when she was arrested combines with his social status to seal his fate.

Typescript draft of Galsworthy’s report on Separate Confinement - Add MS 89733/13/2 f. 35

Galsworthy was also concerned about the overuse of solitary confinement as a punishment in British prisons and therefore requested permission to visit and interview inmates.  He then wrote to contemporary politicians including Winston Churchill, published an open letter to the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone, and wrote a new play Justice.  First staged in 1910, its success increased public pressure on the government and resulted in a legal limit on hours prisoners could be in solitary.

Manuscript of the script of Justice showing Galsworthy’s drawing of the protagonist’s cell - Add MS 89733/2/5 f. 125

These are just two of John’s early plays and represent only a part of the social topics covered by his dramatic output.  Strife brought an industrial dispute onto the London stage, Loyalties touched on British antisemitism, and A Family Man covered the changing role of women in society.  He also wrote poems and articles on behalf of a number of charities and worthy causes, including animal rights, women’s suffrage, and the rehabilitation of disabled servicemen.

Matthew Waters
Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts

 

The India Office Records and Private Papers, held at the British Library, contains many very interesting documents relating to M K Gandhi and the Indian Independence movement.  Among these is one letter which often attracts comment from visitors to the Library.  This is a letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, and dated 28 August 1931, just prior to his travelling to England to attend the Second Round Table Conference.

First page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

In the letter, Gandhi criticised the tactics of Government in recent negotiations: ‘This is to tell you how grieved I felt in Simla over what appeared to me to be your obstructive tactics.  I hope I am wrong in my fears and that you were not responsible for the exasperating situation that led to the waste of precious three days.  The securing of a constitution is nothing to me compared to the joy of discovering human contacts by which one could swear'. However, Gandhi was keen to reassure Emerson that he bore him no ill-will: ‘I shall soon forget the sad memories of the past three days and I know you will forgive me if I have unwittingly misjudged you'.  He went on to say that the future filled him with fear and misgivings and warned Emerson that if Government continued to distrust men such as Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, then an explosion would be almost unavoidable.  He continued: ‘You will most certainly avoid it by trusting them.  I think I know the influence you have.  May I assume your promise to use it right’.

Second page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

Gandhi ended the letter by saying that he had written freely in the exercise of a privilege of friendship and so hoped not to be misunderstood.  He then explained that ‘My right hand needing rest, I have to write with the left hand.  I could not dictate a personal letter like this’.  It might seem surprising to have such informal and friendly communication with government officials to whom he was so completely opposed.  However, a core component of Gandhi’s philosophy was that a free India must be based on a respect and love which encompassed everyone, even British officials.

Emerson's reply to Gandhi, 1 September 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

Emerson replied to Gandhi on 1 September and commented: ‘I did not know you were ambidextrous.  May I congratulate you on the excellence of your left hand writing.  It is neater than I can achieve with the right hand’.  He thought it was hard to be accused of obstructive tactics, and assured Gandhi that the Government wished to keep the peace.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Correspondence with and noting about Gandhi, 1922-1932, reference IOR/R/3/1/289.
Amar Kaur Jasbir Singh, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience. Documents in the India Office Records 1922-1946 (India Office Library and Records: London, 1980).