MrP
Banned
Can we make Haig a 1920s viceroy? Would he be an improvement on the OTL situation?
Source: p.49, J. P. Harris, Douglas Haig and the First World War, CUP, 2008 quoting a letter from Haig to Kiggell of mid 1911.
Clearly, he's not in tune with OTL's loss of India in the 1940s, but few of his generation expected Britain's financial mastery to be dissolved in two great conflagrations. He seems quite reasonable, albeit not so reasonable as a twenty-first century chap (chappess) would see himself (herself).
Personally I feel that there are only two ways of treating India; either we must look forward to the time when India will be in the position of one of the Dominions, and we must prepare for it gradually, looking forward say another 100 years; or the other way is to keep India entirely as a vassal state and keep it entirely under control. For this we shall want a very much larger army than we have now, and it seems hardly possible, having started to give the people a voice in the Government to retrace our steps. There is thus, in my opinion, no other course than to give the sons of the fighting class an opportunity of becoming officers; only those however who show they are morally and intellectually fit for such appointments...
Source: p.49, J. P. Harris, Douglas Haig and the First World War, CUP, 2008 quoting a letter from Haig to Kiggell of mid 1911.
Clearly, he's not in tune with OTL's loss of India in the 1940s, but few of his generation expected Britain's financial mastery to be dissolved in two great conflagrations. He seems quite reasonable, albeit not so reasonable as a twenty-first century chap (chappess) would see himself (herself).