501.BC/6–2949
Memorandum of Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Indian Ambassador (Pandit)1
In relating the background of her government’s instructions to her to request the reaction of the United States to India’s candidacy for the Security Council Madame Pandit spoke in detail of the developments during the 1947 elections. In addition to the general information which was already fully known to me she said that the British had given India assurances in 1947 that they would support India for the SC as the Commonwealth member in a subsequent election but were already committed in 1947 to the support of Canada. She said that India had not as yet approached the British with regard to the 1949 election but that her colleague in London was undoubtedly doing so at the present time. She wished it understood, however, that India did not think of itself so much as a Commonwealth candidate as it did the obvious choice for a representative of the important area of South Asia. In addition she stressed that India’s internal stability would be beneficially affected by its assumption of the important position of member of the SC.
Madame Pandit spoke at considerable length on the subject of the reliability of India within the democratic framework spearheaded in the SC by the US and the UK. She said that whereas her government had avoided and so far as she knows intends to continue to avoid a public declaration of alignment with one or other of the two great concepts in the world, in point of fact the internal administration and affairs of India for the past year (50% of India’s national existence) has been in direct alignment with the principles for which the US [Page 239] stands and the same thing has been true and will continue to be true in the great majority of international issues on which India speaks. The only qualification which she made to the foregoing was “of course within the limitations of India’s own context”.
I explained to Madame Pandit that because of our firm policy of not deciding so far in advance to support specific candidates for important UN positions it was not possible for me to give her what she would consider a satisfactory answer at the present time. On the other hand I assured her that there is at least no other country of which we are thinking and that the arguments which she presented are extremely relevant and would weigh heavily with us in the decision which we would ultimately make. She said that she had of course not expected a definite answer today but that she hoped it would be possible for us to give an indication to India as soon as possible in that India was not interested in standing for election for the SC unless it knew that its friends were prepared to support the candidacy and that the candidacy would not be merely a futile gesture.
I told Madame Pandit that both the President and I hoped particularly that it would be possible for India to assume a constructive leadership in South Asia, and that a solution could be discovered to the problem of colonialism which would result in the emergence of nationalist groups in the various countries working in democratic unison against the further encroachment of Communism. I said that the U.S. was not in a position to take such leadership in South Asia but that we hoped India would and that we would be able to cooperate with the Indian Government in its undertaking.
[Here follows discussion of another subject.]
- This memorandum was drafted and initialed by Mr. Joseph S. Sparks, Acting Assistant Chief of the Division of South Asian Affairs.↩