Sinus Trouble

President Roosevelt's Special Envoy Louis Johnson presented parting gifts to his good Indian friends: beautiful Indian fabrics to Mrs. Nehru, a silver cigaret case to tall, cultured Jawaharlal Nehru,* left-wing leader of the All-India Congress party. In his bags he packed an extra long, ivory cigaret holder for President Roosevelt, who likes his tobacco at a distance. Then quietly, unceremoniously, after two months as the first man in history to make official U.S. contact with Indian leaders, Envoy Johnson last week headed for home.

In a 37-word written statement, Johnson said he planned to return to India "in the near future." The bazaars buzzed with rumors. The most fantastic rumor of all might have been started by hints from a past master of hints, non-violent Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, that the U.S. had ulterior designs on India. The rumor: that Britain would mortgage India to the U.S., that when Johnson returned he would replace the British Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow.

Many who were tired of sorting reality from Gandhi were still interested in Jawaharlal Nehru's unrealistic proposal for a military and political federation of India, China, Iran and Afghanistan, coupled with a hopeful policy of guerrilla warfare against invading Japs, whom it might be impossible to meet "toe to toe on a slugging-match basis."

Just what, if anything, brassily good-humored Louis Johnson had done to the Indian situation was not made public. His bully-boy presence had undoubtedly distracted attention from some of the sting of the unsuccessful negotiations between Indian leaders and Britain's Sir Stafford Cripps. But the apparent purpose of Johnson's visit to India had been to promote means of defeating the Jap. Some said he smelled so much trouble that he wanted to go home. And in truth his nose did bother him. Despite two recent nasal operations, the swirling New Delhi dust was a constant irritant. Whether he was able to smell anything else in India he did not say.

* A gold case was overruled by Nehru's cousin, who said "He [ Nehru ] often travels third-class and somebody might kill him for a gold one."

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