123 Johnson, Louis A./½
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Shaw) of a Conversation With Colonel Louis A. Johnson
We discussed various aspects of his mission to India. The first and most important thing that developed was a very strong objection [Page 617] on his part to the title of “Commissioner”. He said that he was head of the largest law office south of Philadelphia and that in both of the Virginias the title “Commissioner” meant one thing and one thing only: a conspicuously unsuccessful lawyer. Such being the case he could under no circumstances accept a position with the title of “Commissioner” attached to it. I suggested that we might use the title of Special Representative of the President. This, he said, would be altogether agreeable to him. He thought it would be a good plan for there to be a certain amount of overlapping between himself and Mr. Wilson. He said that he was prepared to leave at any time after the expiration of ten days and that he wanted at least to cross the Atlantic on a Pan American Clipper. I told him that I understood he would assume his duties as Special Representative at New Delhi immediately upon his arrival and that this would take precedence over his work as Chairman of the Mission. He said this was the first precise information he had had on this point. He asked me whether I thought he could do much with the Nationalists in India. I said I thought that in view of the present situation in India he probably could but that it must be done with the utmost care. He seemed to feel that he had not been given any very positive information about anything.
In the afternoon, after consulting with Mr. Welles, I telephoned Colonel Johnson and asked him whether the title of Personal Representative of the President would fill the bill so far as he was concerned. He said it most certainly would.32
- In a Department press release of March 24 it was stated: “In view of the appointment of Col. Louis Johnson as Personal Representative of the President in India it will be necessary for him to devote his full time to his duties near the Government of India at New Delhi. It has therefore been decided that Dr. Henry F. Grady, former Assistant Secretary of State and a member of the Advisory Mission to India, will assume the active chairmanship of that Mission.” (Department of State Bulletin, March 28, 1942, p. 260.)↩