Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 1

611.95A241/12–1754: Telegram

No. 449
The United States Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Department of State

secret
priority

New York, December 17, 1954—5 p.m.

Delga 402. Re US fliers held by Red China. Immediately after close of morning’s Plenary, I saw SYG at his request re Chou cable to him in reply to Hammarskjold request for interview.¹ Hammarskjold said he regarded Chou cable as “very courteous”, “not contentious”, and tone pleased him. He was of opinion Chou had not placed Hammarskjold in position of “appellant”.

SYG added, quite confidentially, that Chou had phoned Swedish Chargé in Peking, who is SYG’s nephew, to have him relay personal message stating how happy Chou was that SYG coming to Peking.

From above, SYG’s reaction is that Chou thinks SYG is fair. SYG therefore quite encouraged re prospects that he may be able work something out.

SYG referred to question of who [he] is going to take with him. Interpreter, he expects, will be supplied by Swedish Embassy Peking. Security officer will accompany him from Secretariat. SYG wants take two “advisers”, one from west and one from east. For former, he has asked Nutting (UK) make arrangements for some British lawyer who can be vouched for by UK Govt, but who is not presently holding official position. For someone from east, he has had turn-down from Nehru re Dayal, for stated reason (which SYG feels is not real one) that India’s having abstained, it cannot now get involved. He is therefore considering two men. One is Bokhari² of Pakistan, newly-appointed ASYG for PubInfo, whom SYG likes very much. SYG says they think alike. However, this might appear as direct slap at Nehru. Other is Barrington³ (Burma) but SYG feels, despite his good personal qualities, Barrington wld not be too good in view of his weak govt which SYG regards as under Peking’s domination.

I told SYG that, having first gone to Nehru and been turned down, this was worthwhile bearing in mind when deciding what steps he may wish to take. I said it was not for us to give Hammarskjold advice as to methods. We had confidence in his ability to play his hand in his own way.

Fol my conversation with SYG, Ramsbotham (UK), referring to Nutting’s conversation with SYG, told Barco⁴ he thought UKDel wld recommend against having a Brit lawyer accompany SYG, but might suggest idea of a Swiss lawyer. He also said Hammarskjold told Nutting Chou’s message to SYG’s nephew was to effect Chi-Coms welcome his coming visit and hope talk over a wide variety of subjects.

In speaking of Barrington Ramsbotham said UK favored his going as, in fact they favored using Burmese PriMin as go-between in other matters. For example, they hoped get Burmese PriMin try to get Nehru and Mohammed Ali⁵ to re-open talks on Kashmir at forthcoming Djakarta conference.⁶

Message Unsigned

1. The text of Chou’s cable of Dec. 17, stating that he was prepared to receive Hammarskjold in Peking, is printed in Public Papers of the Secretaries-General, vol. ii, p. 423.
2. Ahmed S. Bokhari, newly-appointed Under Secretary for Public Information at the United Nations.
3. James Barrington, Burmese Ambassador to the United States and Representative at the Ninth Session of the General Assembly.
4. James W. Barco, U.S. representative on the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine.
5. Prime Minister of Pakistan.
6. The Prime Ministers of the Colombo Powers, Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, met in Bogor, Indonesia (near Djakarta), Dec. 28–29, 1954.