Though he was conscious of the fragility of the Hitler-Stalin compact, he saw in it a coalescence of the anti-status quo powers.

Aware that this unnatural pact could not last long, Bose still believed that this would last long enough to inflict a body-blow on the British Indian Empire. After the fall of Holland and France in 1940, he expected an early end of war in the European theatre.

Subhas Bose believed that if the war ended soon a new settlement between Germany and Britain would be the result. He was conscious of Hitler's desire for a peace settlement with Great Britain for a redistribution of the spheres of influence and colonies. Bose wanted to be in Europe to secure political and military help for Indian independence from the former USSR and Germany, the two pillars of the anti-status quo coalition.

The Moscow-Berlin axis had not broken down when Subhas Bose planned to leave British India to meet Soviet and German leaders, if possible at the highest levels, to press for India's right to independence.

The British Indian government had not allowed him to visit China in 1938-39. There was, therefore, no question of the government allowing Bose to leave India for Moscow or Berlin, at a time when the British Indian government was about to return him to prison.