611.94A241/12–2054: Telegram
No. 453
The United States Representative at
the United Nations (Lodge) to the Department of
State
priority
303. Re US fliers held by Red China. Lall (Permanent Indian Rep) called on me at my apartment this morning. He said that the [Page 1042] GOI had instructed him, at his discretion, to see me and make fol known to us on most confidential basis.
Lall said that before question of the imprisoned fliers had been brought to GA, Amb Allen had asked Nehru to see what cld be done in Peking to have fliers released. After GA action Nehru had sent message to Chou advising him to receive Hammarskjold. Nehru felt that it was going rather far for him to do that since India was not taking a stand on the question. He had also received messages from Lester Pearson and St. Laurent (Canada) asking him to intervene with Chou. Over a period of some time Chou had told Nehru that he felt he was being very unfairly treated, that his case on the fliers was good, and that there had been a pattern of US espionage against China during the last seven years. The case of the fliers was thus not an isolated one or simply arising out of Korean conflict. Chou also felt that the fact that US had not dealt with the case of Downey and Fecteau, the two civilians, was an admission on our part of our guilt. Moreover, the US Rep in Geneva, according to Chou, had given the Chinese a list which included the eleven airmen as American Nationals in China and not as military personnel. Chou also complained that there had been an agreement to give exit permits to four Chinese students in the US in exchange for two newspapermen and two others released by the ChiComs1 and that US had not given the exit permits to the students.
I ventured to say there may have been a misunderstanding on the part of the ChiComs of our leaflet dropping operation which, in time of war, was a legitimate military operation. Lall seemed to agree that there may have been such a misunderstanding on the part of the ChiComs.
Lall then said that the Indian Ambassador in Peking, Raghavan, has reported to Nehru that he believes the Chinese are prepared to back down on the fliers if the US does not “bluster” with them. He believes their way out wld be to reduce or commute the sentences without admitting that the convictions had been wrong. If US engaged in “bluster”, however, they wld never release the fliers.
Lall said that Hammarskjold wld make his trip to Peking via New Delhi, but that the reason they wld not let Dayal accompany him was that they did not want to appear to have prejudged the case by having an Indian rep there under the UN “umbrella”.
- The two newspapermen under reference were presumably Applegate and Dixon; see footnotes 2 and 5, Document 308.↩