845.24/7–2948
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Joseph S. Sparks of the Division of South Asian Affairs
| Participants: | Mr. K. K. Nehru, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim, Embassy of India |
| Brigadier D. Chaudhuri, Military Attaché, Embassy of India | |
| Mr. Elbert G. Mathews, Acting Chief, SOA | |
| Mr. Joseph S. Sparks, SOA |
At our request Mr. Nehru and Brigadier Chaudhuri called to receive the Department’s answer to Mr. Chopra’s informal request of June 71 as to the probable reaction of the United States Government to a formal request from the Government of India to import arms and ammunition from the United States to be utilized exclusively in the Indian military training program.
Mr. Mathews said that he was sorry that so much time had been required to prepare an answer but explained that the Indian request had been given very careful consideration not only in the Department of State but in other interested Departments as well. He said that although we very much regretted the necessity of responding negatively to the Indian approach it had become clear in a close examination of the specific items requested by the Embassy that despite the Government of India’s willingness to provide the United States with an undertaking that the items would be used for training purposes exclusively, the export of live ammunition of any type from the United States to India at this time would result in an immediate and commensurate increase in the Government of India’s military potential. The receipt of more than 12,000,000 rounds of ammunition would release a commensurate amount for combat purposes even if the specific rounds received were not so utilized. Mr. Mathews concluded that such an increased military potential from American sources would be in violation of the current United States policy. He explained, however, that this refusal did not prejudice any future requests which the [Page 514] Government of India might wish to make—all of which would be given serious consideration by the Department.
Mr. Nehru and Brigadier Chaudhuri were deeply disappointed by the Department’s decision, and although they did not question the accuracy of including the items which they had requested within the framework of the over-all policy, they did attack this policy and asked whether the time had not come when the policy as a whole could be reconsidered. Mr. Mathews reviewed the history of the development of the policy and explained that it had been adopted reluctantly by the United States only as a result of the unstable situation existing between the Governments of India and Pakistan, the submission of the Kashmir problem to the Security Council, and the actual requests for assistance in military supplies received concomitantly from both Governments last January when the Kashmir developments were at their most serious peak. When Mr. Nehru objected that relations between Pakistan and India might for one cause or another be difficult for some time to come and that what he had always understood to be a temporary policy on the part of the American Government would thus in effect become a long term policy, Mr. Mathews said that he sincerely hoped, and knew that the Government of India hoped, that such would not be the case and that India and Pakistan would be able to find their way to an amicable relationship in the near future. At any rate, he explained, the Department of State could not feel justified at the present time in recommending a reconsideration of the overall policy so long as the situation which caused its original adoption continued substantially unaltered. On two different occasions during the discussion Mr. Nehru repeated his question as to whether “exactly the same policy” applied to Pakistan as to India. He was assured that it did.
- A memorandum dated June 7, 1948, covering this conversation between Messrs. Chopra, Hare, and Sparks, is filed in the records of the Department of State under 845.24/6–748.↩