690D.91/3–3150: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in India 1
priority
niact
311. For Henderson and Warren. If you consider it wld be helpful and if you can both arrange before Delhi mtg convey orally substance fol msg from me to Nehru and Liaquat: “President and I had been fol developments in subcontinent with increasing dismay until we recd word that two PMs had agreed to meet in New Delhi. This act of high statesmanship on both sides has greatly encouraged us. I wish to express the President’s and my own heartfelt hopes for a successful mtg which will relieve the existing tension between India and Pakistan and mark the beginning of a new trend toward improved Indo-Pak relations.”
Important that msg be delivered both PMs2 and that there be no publicity.
- Repeated to Karachi 231.↩
- The message was conveyed orally to Liaquat Ali Khan by Warren on April 1 and was delivered to Bajpai in Henderson’s absence by the Counselor of Embassy on April 2 for Bajpai’s promised immediate transmittal to Nehru. Details of delivery of the message and brief replies from Liaquat and Nehru are in telegram 258 from Karachi of April 1 and telegram 452 from New Delhi of April 3, neither printed. (690D.91/4–150 and 4–350)↩