The following extracts are from "Transfer of Power, Vol VI " (1942-47) .

Sir Robert Francis Mudie, home member, Viceroy's Executive Council, to Sir Evan Meredith Jenkins, Private Secretary to the Viceroy. Wavell Papers.

Official Correspendence. India, January - December 1945, pp 273

Top secret.

Home Department, New Delhi
23 Aug, 1945

"... whatever decision is taken in Bose's case must have the full backing of Her Majesty's government.(Viceroy Wavell had been called to London for consultations by the new UK Labour Party PM Clement Attlee)

"The note has been prepared after discussion with Smith and Totterham. Smith is afraid of the agitation that his trial in this country will cause than either Totterham or I...

3. I have examined your suggestion that Bose be treated as a "war criminal". He is clearly not one in the ordinary sense of that word. Nor does he appear to come within the extended definition which has now been adopted by the United Nations. In this connection I would refer you to the air mail edition of The Times of August 9th."

Yours sincerely,
R.F. Mudie

Home Department

One of the most difficult questions that will confront Home Department in the near future is the treatment of Subhas Chandra Bose.

1. Bring him back to India and try him either for waging war or under the enemy agents ordinance
2. Have him tried by a court in Burma or Malaya for waging war against the king in that country.
3. Have him tried by a military court outside India.
4. Intern him in India
5. Intern him in some other British possession, e.g., Seychelles Islands
6. Leave him where he is and don't ask for his surrender

4. I do not think that there is any chance of Bose being hanged if he were tried in India. The pressure for his release would be too great; and also his trial would result in great publicity for his doings, motives, etc...

5. It is extremely unlikely that the Government of Burma, which is engaged in appeasing the Burma National Army, would agree to try Bose and even more likely that if they did, they would hang him. The Government of Malaya might possibly have no such scruples and we might get a hanging if His Majesty's Government agreed to ignore agitiation in India and Parliament however strong

But a trial in Singapore would cause almost as much agitiation in this country a a trial here, unless it were held in camera and no news released till after his execution. But in that case we would be accused of judicial murder.

9. In many ways the easiest course would be to leave him where he is and not ask for his release. He might, of course, in certain circumstances, be welcomed by the Russians. This course would raise fewest immediate political difficulties, but the security authorities consider that in certain circumstances his presence in Russia would be so dangerous a to rule it out altogether.

10. The choice seems to be between deporting and interning Bose outside India or trying him in India and commuting the death sentence. The two might be combined and Bose deported(or "transported") after conviction.

There would be considerable long term advantages in a trial, but reprieve might raise the questions of why military officers who joined Bose's army should be hanged. The answer would be that their position in the Army greatly aggravated their offence, but this might not be accepted by the Army.