On 20 February 1947 the British PM Clement Attlee announced that Britain would quit India by June 1948. Former Secretary of State of India, Samuel John Gurney Hoare commented that Attlee’s declaration was an “unconditional surrender, at the expense of many to whom we have given specific pledges for generations past, which would lead to a division of India under the worst possible circumstances” and that it would “imperil the peace and prosperity of India”.