Office of the Historian

790.5/9–954

The Ambassador in Ceylon (Crowe) to the Department of State

confidential
No. 159
Colombo, September 9, 1954.

Subject:

  • Report of Conversation on (September 9, 1954 between Sir Claude Corea, High Commissioner of Ceylon to the United Kingdom, and Ambassador Crowe

Sir Claude Corea, due to his long residence in Washington is, I believe, a good friend of America and his opinions therefore can be considered as friendly criticism. During his six weeks visit to Ceylon which terminate this week we have had three separate talks and [Page 1621] covered most of the pressing questions of the day. It was not, however, till this morning’s conversation that he really expressed himself forcefully. The matter under discussion was SEATO and should be made a matter of record.

Sir Claude said that in his opinion and in that of most of the Ceylonese Government Great Britain and America were very inept in their presentation of SEATO to the Colombo Powers. He added that if the western powers had taken Ceylon into their confidence and invited her to do the persuading for them in this part of Asia there would not have been the slightest doubt of her joining the pact. Instead of this approach, however, Ceylon was faced with a fait accompli with which she had nothing initially to do.

He said that the efforts of Mr. Dodds-Parker, the Parliamentary Secretary of the United Kingdom Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who recently visited the Island to get Ceylon to go along with SEATO were both ill-timed and unconvincing. Questioned further on this point, he said that it was felt that a man of more position and experience should have been sent out here.*

Sir Claude said that the Prime Minister is personally for SEATO and it was he that insisted on leaving the door open against the possibility of joining the pact in the future.

P. K. Crowe
  1. Asked about the Government’s reaction to the efforts of the diplomatic corps here to swing Ceylon toward SEATO, he said that he had heard no criticism and felt that it was generally accepted that the representatives of France, the United Kingdom and the United States should endeavor to get Ceylon in line with Pakistan. [Footnote in the source text]↩