Our work in Germany can be divided up into three sections. Firstly, to build the Indian National Army. The first batch of volunteers, about ten in number, came from the Indian Students. But the bulk of the men, more than three thousand, came from the prisoners of war taken during the North African campaign.

Our second task was to propagate correct information about India among the Germans who were keen to know about the Indian situation. For this purpose an English-German monthly magazine, called Azad Hind was issued by the Azad Hind Government and several thousand of copies were distributed in Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria. Some of the members also contributed regularly articles on India in the German Press. The demand for such articles from German newspapers and magazines was so great that it was hardly possible to satisfy them all in view of the fact that we had only very small staff of writers. Whatever might have been the official Nazi point of view regarding India, it must be admitted that among the German population there has always been a genuine sympathy for India and Indian aspirations since the days when scholars like Max Mueller popularised Indian philosophy and culture in Europe.

Our third task was radio propaganda for India, which was done through three different transmissions, namely, Azad Hind Radio, Congress Radio, and Muslim Radio. It must be mentioned here that the German Propaganda Ministry also had its own department of Radio transmission to India in Indian languages which did its own Nazi official propaganda and with which we were not at all concerned. Our Radio always maintained an independent character, although we had to observe certain limitations arising out of the war. In this connection, it is interesting to note that in one of his Radio talks Netaji mentioned that when India attains Independence her constitution will be drawn up democratically by the Indian people by universal suffrage. But "democracy" was not to the liking of the enthusiastic Nazi Censor Official, who duly censored that part of Netaji's talk. Thereupon, Netaji flatly refused to transmit the mutilated talk. However, the Foreign Office officials later apologised to Netaji, and since then no more attempt was made to censure our Radio scripts.

In our Radio propaganda we followed a very simple line, that is, anti-British and anti-imperialist, as well as anti-American. On such questions there was no difficulty whatsoever. In certain matters we even took quite the opposite attitude to the German point of view. For example, regarding Greece we gave great prominence to the underground Greek guerrilla forces who were denounced by the Germans as "bandits," but extolled by us as partiots. Regarding Poland we supported the Lublin Committee and denounced the Polish Government in London. We also propagated for Marshal Tito against General Mikhailovich. In all these cases our explanation was that all these forces were anti-British, and we regard all anti-British forces as our allies.

But our biggest Problem was how to deal with the question of the Soviet Union. The German Press was full of anti-Bolshevik propaganda and atrocity stories. To the Nazis, the Russians were just Asiatic barbarians, something sub-human. But we too were "Asiatic barbarians". Naturally, therefore, this sort of propaganda only repelled us. But apart from this, our political attitude towards the Soviet Union was completely different for various reasons. The International position of the Soviet Union as the greatest anti-imperialist power could not be ignored by any politically conscious Indian. Moreover, the Soviet Union as the first socialist country with her experiments in mass education, sanitation industry, agriculture and science occupied a high place in the minds of the people of our country. Besides, India had no quarrel with the Soviet Union. Due to all these factors, we had no reason to do anti-Soviet propaganda from our Radio, although some of the Nazi officials would have much liked to see it in our programme. Another important fact must also be remembered that the anti-Fascist group was the most active and dominant group in the Berlin Azad Hind Government, and it was fully conscious of the importance of Soviet civilisation for the common man in contrast with Nazi barbarism. We went to Germany not because we were attracted by the philosophy of Hitler, but because we saw that the war had opened up a new possibility for raising the struggle of Indian Independence to a higher level and to bring it to a final stage. Whether that path was correct or not, that is altogether a different matter.

It must also be mentioned that Netaji's sympathetic ideas about the Soviet Union did not undergo any alteration even though he made an alliance with the Axis powers. Regarding anti-Soviet propaganda in the Anglo-American Press before the war, Netaji always used to say the truth is just the opposite to what they say. Needless to say, Netaji was not very much impressed by the Nazi propaganda against the Soviet Union and the Red Army even when the German Army was rapidly advancing in the East. I remember the day when Sevastopol was taken by the Germans. Naturally, after taking one of the strongest fortresses, the German Press was very jubilant. It proclaimed the superiority of the German arms and predicted a rapid conquest of Russia. Netaji himself wrote our Radio talks that day dealing with Sevastopol. It was a short talk covering only one typed page. In that talk Netaji said that the taking of Sevastopol was a great victory for Germany, although the Russians defended it most heroically. It was a stiff battle which cost both sides very heavily. Sevastopol was not decisive in order to conquer the whole of Russia, Germany will have to fight many decisive battles which are yet to come. The Russian Red Army was still intact, the final decision was far away — concluded Netaji.

While in Germany Netaji was seriously thinking out the general principles of free India's foreign policy. He was convinced that even when India became free, she will have to continue the struggle against the economic imperialism of Britain and America.

India had no other way but to advance towards a fully socialist state. But socialism cannot go forward without a clash with economic imperialism. For Netaji India's potential friends were Russia and Germany. What would be the internal regime in Germany, Netaji could not foresee. But Netaji regretted very much that these two great nations, Russia and Germany, which could become India's best friend, were exhausting their entire resources in men and material in that most murderous war that was ever fought in the history of the world. Regarding China, Netaji thought China could never become strong power so long the Chiang Kai Shek regime lasts there. A Socialist China was absolutely necessary in order to free Asia from the clutches of Anglo-American imperialism. Netaji believed that if India becomes socialist, it will not take long for China also to become a strong, progressive and socialist state. According to Netaji, the fate of the whole of Asia therefore depended on India. India was the key to the Asiatic problem. If India could solve her problems, there is a certainty of Asiatic emancipation. But if India still continues to be dominated by Western imperialism Asia would also be condemned to remain backward, oppressed and exploited.

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