18th June, 1953.
Dear Friend,
On my return from USSR I have found among many other personal letters your personal note to me of the 1st inst. for which I thank you.
I regret your decision but I fully appreciate the reasons for it. I do not think the age question would matter because we have now abolished 55 as the retirement age for our technical personnel and we have fixed no limit to the period for which we can re-emply them. But what worries me is the fact that you consider the enterprise of the A.I.M.I. an unwise one. I myself am so anxious to raise standards of medical education in our country and to give our young men and women a chance of post-graduate studies in their own country and in their own rural background. Unless I have an institution under the Central Ministry of Health I cannot achieve my object and therefore it is that I am trying to lay the foundation of what should be an ideal teaching institution in our country. Were our States not autonomous in the matter of Health I might have tried other ways and means of raising standards, as for example, by upgrading various departments or even upgrading standards in the existing colleges in India. That, however, is not possible for me to do with the present set-up. I believe thet if the A.I.M.I. is started on a sound foundation it will
eventually become not only a good centre for all the Indian States to copy but also an international centre for the South East Asia Zone.
With very kind regards to Mrs. Gregg and yourself,
Yours sincerely
Amrit Kaur