‘The three and a half years of Lord Wavell’s Viceroyalty from October 1943 to March 1947 was probably the most difficult and momentous period of office that any Viceroy has had to face. The crucial significance of these years and the great services that Wavell rendered during them to India and Britain, though recognized to some extent at the time have not since then received the appreciation that is their due…. Lord Wavell’s Journal, along with some of his notes and memoranda, should help to correct a number of misconceptions and will lead, perhaps, to a better appraisal of his achievements as Viceroy and his qualities as a man,’ says Sir Penderel Moon in his Introduction. Most diaries and memoirs, in spite of professions to the contrary tend to be written consciously or unconsciously with an eye on the reader and the public image created thereby.
March-April 1977, volume 2, No 3/4