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[[MS 2750/2/2/11]]

H. C. Coaten, Esq., 
The Garden City Press Ltd., 
Letchworth, 
Herts.

27th June, 1940.

Dear Mr. Coaten,

Mr. Woolf and I were rather surprised to find that your firm took the line that so many passages in Ahmed Ali’s novel, which you have already set up, were subversive. We have gone into the question very thoroughly ourselves and in co-operation with the author, and have persuaded him to cut out several further phrases and sentences, though in our view this was not strictly necessary. We fully realise that, under present circumstances, the departments concerned in the censorship may be rather overzealous, and that you wish to cover yourselves. Our point of view, however, is that this is the work of a gifted Indian poet, who is not at all fundamentally hostile to the English, but who wishes to present an objective artistic picture of the ancient capital of the Mogouls as it has been in recent years, and the mood of its inhabitants. His aim has been to write a period novel; and heshas [sic] been at pains to avoid anything that might appear to be anti-English propaganda, though naturally he introduces characters who voice sentiments of bitterness about their fallen splendour. That such characters exist, no one who knows India would deny, nor that they often express themselves far more forcibly than Mr. Ali has described.

I feel extremely anxious that no unfortunate misunderstanding should arise between us about this book, and I therefore feel that it would be best if you could come in to see me about it one morning, and if after seeing the further passages which Mr. Ali has cut out you still feel inclined to maintain your opposition, to decide what further measures we can take.

It is perhaps worth adding that several books on India have recently appeared of a far more trenchantly critical sort than Mr. Ali’s novel.

Yours sincerely,

John Lehmann.