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The British Ambassador ( Halifax ) to the Acting Secretary of State 89
Dear Mr. Acting Secretary: I see that when the bill to grant a quota to Eastern Hemisphere Indians and to make them racially eligible for naturalization (H.R. 173) was taken in the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization a member of the Committee asked a question about the attitude of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom. Mr. Biddle90 answered that he thought the bill would be welcomed by His Majesty’s Government.
The subject matter of the legislation is, of course, one for the Government of the United States to determine. I should, however, like to assure you that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom would welcome enactment of a law on the lines of the Bill as a gesture of friendship to India which has played, and is playing, so important part in the war.
Yours very sincerely,
[For a letter of May 18 from William D. Hassett, Secretary to President Truman, to the Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, with which was enclosed the late President Roosevelt’s letter of March 5, and in which was stated President Truman’s agreement with the views expressed in the March 5 letter, see Congressional Record, volume 91, part 7, page 9524.]