February 12, 1951
Memorandum of Conversation
Participants: Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador L. D. Battle
Sir Oliver Franks came in to see me while the Secretary was at Cabinet and said that in order to comply with an instruction he had received from Mr. Bevin, it was necessary for him to speak with the Secretary about the hope of the British that Admiral Nimitz would be available to serve on the United Nations negotiations on Kashmir. Sir Oliver said that he had nothing particularly to add to what had orally been told the Department by Michael Walker of the British Embassy, but he felt that he must speak to the Secretary either in person or on the telephone. He said he would be down the hall in a meeting and would like to be called out, if possible, for five minutes with the Secretary. Later in the afternoon, Sir Oliver dropped in to the office and Mr. Acheson was free. I took him in to the office for approximately five minutes.
Sir Oliver said that he wanted to state again the earnest hope of the British that we would make Admiral Nimitz available. He said he thought that this would be a signal contribution toward the solution of the Kashmir problem. He said that Sir Zafrulla Khan had "thrown a fit" when told that Admiral Nimitz was not available and that it was important from the standpoint of the Pakistanis that Admiral Nimitz serve.
Sir Oliver also said that when Nehru spoke today and was explaining the Commonwealth Conference, the only thing he did not throw out of the window was the proposal that Admiral Nimitz recruit forces, etc., in connection with the Kashmir problem.
The Secretary said that what was being asked here was something in addition to what Admiral Nimitz had been available for before. He said that it was not just to serve as plebiscite administrator but that we were being asked to make him available for the additional preliminary work. The Secretary repeated
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what was in the message he sent to Mr. Bevin and said that this position had been cleared over at the Cabinet meeting and with the President.
The Secretary asked Sir Oliver whether the British really thought the resolution would pass. Sir Oliver said that they did not know. The Secretary then said that if the resolution should pass and that he could be shown that we were really delaying the cause of world peace, he would consider the possibility of changing our position but that for the moment the position was as set forth in his cable to Mr. Bevin.
L.D.B.
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