DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation
DATE: July 17, 1950
SUBJECT: Presentation of a Note from the Prime Minister of India
PARTICIPANTS: Her Excellency, Madam Vijayalskshmi Pandit - Ambassador of India Mr. T. N. Kaul - First Secretary, Embassy of India The Honorable, Dean Acheson - Secretary of State Mr. Joseph S. Sparks - SOA
COPIES TO: S/S, NEA, SOA, UNA, FE, Amembassy, New Delhi
In handing the note from the Prime Minister of India to me, Madame Pandit said that they had been distressed this morning to see from the papers that its contents had been disclosed in New Delhi in an All-India Radio Broadcast and were at a loss to explain how this had happened.
I read the note and said that I hoped we would be in a position to have a reply this afternoon. Madame Pandit said that the Prime Minister regards the contents of his original message as a precedent consistent with the high ideals of the American people and of the President of the United States personally and that she hopes every consideration will be given to it. I assured her that the problem would be considered by the President himself most deeply and carefully.
Madame Pandit said that she did not wish to review the entire background but did wish to remind me that in the opinion of the Government of India there is reason to believe that Communist China would not take an aggressive attitude as a member of the United Nations and that some clarification statement from the United States concerning Formosa would be most helpful. She said that the Government of India believed that the best way of calling the bluff of the U.S.S.R., if indeed it was a bluff, would be to get the U.S.S.R. back in the Security Council. If, under these circumstances, Russia were to abuse this last chance which had been given to it, world opinion as a whole and particularly in Asia would go against Russia, confident that every channel for a solution had been explored. She reiterated India\'s complete support of the first and second resolutions of the Security Council on Korea and said that she felt it was important that there should be no room for doubt in anyone\'s mind as to whether every conceivable effort had been made to resolve the Korean situation peacefully. I assured her that the thoughts which she had advanced as well as the messages which we had received would be carefully studied and given full weight.
NEA:SOA:JSSparks:mkj July 17, 1950