711.45/7: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to Mr. William Phillips, Personal Representative of President Roosevelt in India
140. Your no. 116, February 9. The Department agrees that everything possible should be done to allay Indian uneasiness regarding American economic intentions towards India, particularly as our enemies may well be actively encouraging these ideas. While the possibility should not be ignored that repeated denials of economic imperialistic intentions might be misinterpreted as an indication of an uneasy conscience and thus tend to confirm in some quarters the extravagant suspicions mentioned by you, the Department desires that you be guided by your own judgment in which the highest confidence is placed with regard to the appropriateness of such occasions as may arise for a statement or statements emphasizing that allegations of the sort under discussion are entirely without foundation.
With regard to the phraseology which might best be used, the Department feels that you might most satisfactorily be guided by the following statements of officials of this Government, all of which statements are believed to have appeared in the radio bulletin:
The War and Human Freedom, radio broadcast by the Secretary, July 22 [23], 1942;13 Memorial Day Address by the Under Secretary, May 30, 1942;14 Problem of Economic Peace after the War by Mr. [Page 260] Pasvolsky of the Department of State, March 4, 1942;15 British-American Trade Relations, by Mr. Hawkins of the Department of State, October 9, 1942;16 Speech to National Foreign Trade Convention, by the Under Secretary, October 9 [8], 1942.17
Reference is also made to the statements of Dr. Henry Grady while in India regarding the purpose of his mission. These statements were made informally and without record available to the Department but the officers of the Mission at New Delhi and the President of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry are no doubt familiar with them.