The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 127
127 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN situation in India, and we discussed whether it would be possible to do something by way of liberalizing the spirit of the then Constitution. I told him that I had already submitted a memorandum to the Viceroy, from Chungking, making certain suggestions, which I was glad to find Dick Casey thought would be helpful and were practicable. He said, "Why don't you, at the end of the conference at Mont Tremblant, go on to London to discuss all this there?" I told him I could not, in the middle of the war, just go where I wished and claim the time and attention of busy people, but that I would go gladly if I was asked. He said he would write to Mr. Amery who was then Secretary of State for India. So we went along from Cairo to Lagos, making night stops at Khartoum, Stanleyville and Leopoldville. We stopped two or three days at Lagos and were put up at Government House. Sir Henry Bourdillon was at that time the Governor General of Nigeria. Then we made a short hop one afternoon by land plane from Lagos to Accra, where the Governor was Sir Allan Burns, and he very kindly put us up at his very interesting residence, Christianborg Castle, which is situated on top of a rock which rises sheer from the Atlantic for 200 feet. The same night we heard the news over the radio that all flights of aircraft, civilian as well as military were grounded, until further notice. No reason was assigned, and we did not know whether we would be able to go forward or even backward. The next morning the mystery was resolved. It came over the radio that the American North African landings had begun. We had to wait until something could be arranged to put us across the Atlantic. The third evening, after dinner, a telephone message was received from the airport, which was under American control, that if the Governor would send his guests over within half an hour, they would be sent across the Atlantic. At the last moment, Lady Burns very kindly pushed three sofa cushions through the window of the car saying, "Take these. The aircraft is a freighter. There may be no seats at all, and these might be of some help. " We arrived at the airport and found that the aircraft was one of the freighters which carried American ferry pilots back to America. These pilots used to bring military aircraft over, to be sent across through Iran to Russia, and then went for more. There was a party of them going back to America by this freighter. We were told