On May 17, 1916, Ambedkar addressed two letters to the British Consul in New York, from Livingston Hall, Columbia University. New war-time regulations were in force and a passport could not be issued without permission from the India Office in London. The British Consul General, after making enquiries with the embassy in Washington, had promptly forwarded Ambedkar’s application to the Foreign Office in London on May 22. Therefore, it was not until June 8 that the Under Secretary of State of the Foreign Office in turn forwarded it to the India Office in London. If they had, Ambedkar’s letters are not likely to have survived, for consular offices do not preserve passport applications for long.

Source: The Hindu April 13, 2018 18:56 UTC