Office of the Historian

357.AB/9–2550

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson)1

secret
[Washington,] September 25, 1950.

Subject: Kashmir Dispute: Meeting with Sir Owen Dixon

Participants: Sir Owen Dixon, UN Representative for Kashmir
Mr. John D. Hickerson, UNA
1.
I had dinner with Sir Owen on Monday evening, September 18, at which time we discussed various aspects of his recent mission. Sir Owen, in addition to describing his efforts in some detail, as now set forth in his report to the Security Council,2 reiterated his general conclusions on future action by the Council. These conclusions are:
(a)
No major changes in the Kashmir situation will occur in the next 6 months, even if nothing is done by the parties or by the Security Council to attempt to reach a solution of the issue;
(b)
The parties, themselves, must solve the political and territorial problems;
(c)
The Security Council should concentrate on reducing the armed forces in the area.
 
Sir Owen referred again to the advisability of a Pakistan declaration that they would not commit aggression against India, and the use of such declaration by the Security Council as the basis for a resolution addressed to solving the Kashmir Dispute and placing the burden for such solution on India and Pakistan.
2.
Dixon made two additional points, not hitherto expressed:
(a)
He believed that the Vale of Kashmir should go to Pakistan;
(b)
He remarked that it is so exceedingly difficult to secure Indian agreement to a fair plebiscite in the Vale, the principal bone of contention between the parties, that a possible solution might be to prevail on the Government of Pakistan to give the Vale to India in return for Indian concessions favorable to Pakistan. He suggested that these concessions should involve the principal remaining issues between the two countries, such as the Canal Waters Dispute, jute and cotton problems, and even the exchange-rate argument.
3.
I referred to the suggestion made by Prime Minister Liaquat of Pakistan to Ambassador Warren that the Security Council appoint an arbitrator, with a prior commitment from both parties to accept the arbitrator’s decision. Sir Owen thought this an excellent move, and suggested that it was an opportunity for a tactical gambit by Pakistan, by which the Pakistanis would make a proposal offering to accept arbitration and suggest using three arbitrators, one appointed by Pakistan, one by India, and the third by the two arbitrators thus chosen by the parties. I remarked that it might be better to have only one arbitrator, appointed by the Security Council, since past experience in the Kashmir Dispute demonstrated the advisability of concentrating conciliary or mediatory powers in one person, and I assumed that this would be true of arbitral powers as well. On reflection, Sir Owen agreed that this seemed preferable.
  1. This memorandum, prepared by Howard Meyers of the Office of the United Nations Political and Security Affairs, included the following notation: “This memorandum has not been read by Mr. Hickerson, but is based on his description of this meeting to the writer of this memorandum.”↩
  2. Report transmitted by Dixon to the President of the Security Council in a letter dated September 15, 1950. The report, Security Council Document S/1791, S/1791/Add. 1, is printed in Official Records of the Security Council, Fifth Year, Supplement for September–December 1950.↩