845.24/324
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
The Agent General for India came in to see me at his request.
He stated that he had received a telegram from Delhi regarding the proposed economic and production mission to India. The Government of India would, he said, enthusiastically welcome such a mission; and further, that it wished the mission, while in India, would be guests of the Indian Government. This meant that the Indian Government would assume the expense of transportation and accommodations while the mission was in India. He said he was particularly gratified with the prompt response since not more than 72 hours had elapsed between the time when Clive Baillieu made his recommendation to London and the acquiescence both of the British and Indian authorities.
He then said that his Government hoped announcement of the mission could be made very soon. It was thought that this might be of assistance in the general political atmosphere prevailing in India. He therefore hoped that on Monday he could submit to us a draft communiqué, and might make arrangements for simultaneous release in the United States and India.
He then went on to express the hope that the head of the mission would be “a man of the world”. He said that the mission would arrive at a time of constitutional development in India and that it might very well be that the head of the mission could be of some assistance in appraising the various elements involved.
I thanked him. I said that we had not considered the mission as having any political objectives; in fact, while we followed the constitutional developments in regard to India with great interest and sympathy, this Government could not possibly consider interfering in a development which was primarily of concern to India and to Great Britain.
Sir Girja then brought up another matter which he said was somewhat allied. He said that the question of his own status had been under some discussion between himself and Lord Halifax. He held a commission from the King, making him virtually plenipotentiary. Despite this, he was listed here as one of the staff of the British Embassy. He wondered what opinion we had of his actual status. He pointed out that by virtue of his powers and his functions, he was plainly in a quite different category say from Sir Ronald Campbell, [Page 610] who spoke merely as an officer of the Embassy and looked to Lord Halifax for his instructions, whereas Sir Girja acted on instructions from the Indian Government.
I said that I could understand his point of view perfectly. We had not entered into the determination of his status on the Embassy list though we had, in practice, dealt with Sir Girja as the representative of India and not as representative of the British Ambassador. Sir Girja had in fact signed the Declaration by United Nations24 as the representative of India. But I thought that the clarification of his status was a matter between him and the British Government. I was very sure that this Government would be glad to recognize any status which they worked out between them. Again, we did not wish, in the time of Britain’s trial, to seem to be interfering in constitutional changes occurring within the Empire. Meantime, and quite irrespective of protocol, the fact that Sir Girja represented the Indian Government had been, to my mind, thoroughly established by his appearing as a signatory of the Declaration by United Nations.
Sir Girja thanked me.
He then reviewed briefly the constitutional changes taking place in India; he said that they were still expecting a statement from the British Government, which was under debate. He had telegraphed the Viceroy a summary of American opinion, saying that there was very considerable increase of American interest in India; that part of it came from partisans who wished to criticize the British, but another and very considerable part came from people who were thoroughly friendly to Britain but entirely friendly to the cause of Indian development. He had reported the interest shown by the Senate committee, pointing out that this represented an outside opinion rather than the sentiment of the Government which had thus far scrupulously declined to intervene.
I gathered that he had implied that American public opinion would welcome a lifting of Indian status. He said that if he were advising the British Government, he would suggest that they turn over the remaining posts in the Viceroy’s Council to Indians, except that the commander-in-chief would, of course, remain possibly with an associate; and that having announced this, he would suggest calling in the Mohammedan and Hindu political parties, asking them to agree on the division of the Cabinet posts, the understanding being that if they were unable to agree upon the division, then the Viceroy would choose as best he could.