845.00/1967: Telegram
The Officer in Charge at New Delhi (Merrell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9 p.m.]
367. A Reuter’s story under a Washington dateline published in the local papers today says that Mr. Phillips will return to India in a few weeks50 and that little significance has been attached to his meeting with Churchill.51 The last paragraph of the story reads:
“There have been some attempts in Indian quarters here to prejudice the coincidence of the presence of Mr. Churchill and Mr. Phillips in Washington, an opportunity to raise Indian political questions, but these failed to impress responsible US officials.”
The prevailing view is that India is still the business to be settled between Britain and India with a corresponding emphasis on New [Page 224] Delhi as the center of any political discussions. One high official told Reuter’s “As British ally our only immediate concern is to ensure efficient prosecution of the war wherever waged”.
Dawn52 carried the story under the following caption “Phillips fails to impress US officials”.
- Actually Ambassador Phillips, after a period of consultation with the Department, went on leave from June 22 to September 13; however, during that period he was called upon by the Department on several occasions for consultation.↩
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was in Washington from May 11 to May 26 for the Third Washington Conference; correspondence relating to this Conference is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations. ↩
- Prominent Moslem newspaper, organ of the Moslem League leader, Jinnah.↩