The Watch Tower Society’s Bombay branch office was raided and all literature was taken away. But Jehovah’s hand was not short. Having no need to store large quantities of literature and being cut off from financial aid from Brooklyn headquarters, the India branch office was transferred to smaller and less expensive accommodations in the Colaba district. Even though The Watchtower now was banned, not one issue was missed during the entire period. Jehovah saw to it that the brothers were supplied with spiritual food. Frequently, merchant ships docking in Bombay harbor carried sailors who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and invariably they brought the latest issue of The Watchtower to the branch office.

Then fearlessly, but discreetly, stencils were made and the material printed on a duplicating machine and supplied to the brothers scattered about in India. In later years, the books “The Truth Shall Make You Free” and “The Kingdom Is at Hand,” as well as a few booklets, were all published in mimeograph form, bound and distributed to the brothers. As a consequence, all through the period of the ban plenty of Bible study provisions were made available due to Jehovah’s loving care.

For some time, the branch overseer and his colleagues in the Bombay office had endured the distracting clangor of war equipment rolling through the streets at night. The office was on the road to the Bombay military area where British tanks, field guns and other heavy military supplies were stored. It was bedlam at night. Hence, with authority from the Society, the branch office again was moved, this time to 167 Love Lane, a more spacious and economical abode in the quieter district of Byculla. This location served as the hub of our Christian activity in India for the next eighteen years, until 1960, when the Society bought its own property in the suburbs of Santa Cruz, thirteen miles (21 kilometers) north of Bombay.