At the very meeting at which the plan of June 3rd was accepted, the Leaders agreed to discuss a paper which I had laid before them on the administrative consequences of partition; and then and there we set up the machinery which was to carry out one of the greatest administrative operations in history–the partition of a sub-continent of 400 million inhabitants and the transfer of power to two independent governments in less than two and a half months. My reason for hastening these processes was that, once the principle of division had been accepted, it was in the interest of all parties that it should be carried cut with the utmost speed. We set a pace faster in fact than many at the time thought possible. To the Ministers and officials who have laboured day and night to produce this astonishing result, the greatest credit is due.
