The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 166
150 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN paper which he gave to Mr. Justice Munir, saying those were his orders. Munir brought that slip away and gave it to me. This slip indicates that the directions to the pilot were to fly east to the point near Pathankot where the river Ravi emerges from the mountains and debouches into the plains of the Punjab and then to follow the course of the River Ravi up to a point in Lahore District, and then to veer left along towards Ferozpur etc. "This means that that is going to be the boundary, otherwise what was the point of going to a particular point and then following a definite course? It was not to be a flight over a certain area to survey it; this was to follow a definite line. I have, therefore, decided to go to Delhi tonight, to put the matter before Mr. Jinnah, and to suggest that Munir and I should resign from the Commission on the ground that apparently the whole thing has been determined in advance, before even the parties have put in their written cases, and that there is not much use in our going on with the Commission. Later, either a new commission can be constituted or some other method can be adopted for determining the boundary. " I said to him, "Mr. Jinnah will not be so easily persuaded by your presentation of this matter. He might pooh-pooh the whole thing. He is a lawyer, and you'd better have some legal basis for what you are going to say to him. " He asked, "What do you mean by 'legal basis'?" I said, "What I suggest - I don't know whether you'll succeed with him even then - but what I suggest is that you should take up this aspect of the case with him: We have accepted Sir Cyril Radcliffe as umpire in the case, and we are bound to accept what he decides as umpire. But, as umpire, it is his duty to base his judgment on such material as is submitted to him by the Commission. As umpire, he is not entitled to receive material from other sources and to take that into consideration. What the parties place before the Commission is the material on which the decision must be made, that material, along with the views of the Commission, will be submitted to Sir Cyril Radcliffe, and on that together with the announcement, which the Prime Minister has made and which is the basis of partition he must make up his mind. Now, who suggested this trip to him? He knows nothing at all of conditions here; he doesn't even know the parties' cases. What is the meaning of this particular line that the flight was to follow? Mr. Jinnah should try to find out the meaning of this proposed trip which had to be abandoned and the significance of the line which was to be followed. If he should be satisfied that it had no particular significance at all, though it's