RELEASE OF THE MOUNTBATTEN PAPERS

I have long been intrigued by the relationship, during WW2,between the late Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Louis Mountbatten. Churchill entrusted Mountbatten to manage the partition of India but was critical of the final outcome which did not follow his wishes.

The diaries and records of Mountbatten were purchased with public money and lodged with the archive of the University of Southampton (UoS) but kept unavailable to public access for reasons of sensitivity despite a legal obligation to do so. It's a long story and an Internet search will provide detail.

What has happened, very recently, is that the UoS has now released them for public access which requires registration with the Archivist:

www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/cataloguedatabases/mb/index.page

I find, however, that one particular document of 1947 recording events of the partition of India is still clutched in their talons.

Partly but it appears to have been the UoS Archivist who had read the contents recommending non-release due to what he considered to be sensitive information concerning the royal family. Driven by an individual, who spent a small fortune of his own money to force release of the papers, an order was made to do so yet the UoS did not do so until recently. Perhaps the 'delay' was due to cataloguing and digitisation.

I have 'bid' for access an await personal on-line Login details.