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The following documents, drawn chiefly from the IOR/L/PJ/12 series held at the British Library, illustrate the establishment's reaction to both the Meerut trial as well as its general awareness, and indeed perceived fear, of the growing influence of the Communist International (Comintern) in India. Many papers here, extracted from the Indian Police Intelligence files, comprise surveillance reports and concentrate on many organisations and individuals with communist associations, including the three British accused, Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley and Lester Hutchinson, covering the periods before, during and after the trial. A large portion are dedicated to the trial itself*, with official British responses to the case available here through transcribed Parliamentary questions. Further reactions to the arrest and treatment of the prisoners include correspondence from notable contemporaries such as the Archbishop of York, H. G. Wells and R. H. Tawney.*The complete two-volume printed judgment passed by Judge R. L. Yorke, January 1933, can be found in the Ben Bradley papers (CP/IND/BRAD/03/02 & /03).
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