Office of the Historian

205. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, March 6, 19581

Washington, March 6, 1958

SUBJECT

  • Visit of Indian Ambassador G.L. Mehta and B.K. Nehru

PARTICIPANTS

  • Under Secretary
  • G.L. Mehta, Ambassador of India
  • B.K. Nehru, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance
  • SOA—Mr. Bartlett
  • SOA—Miss Nicholl

Mr. Nehru and Ambassador Mehta called at their request.2 Mr. Nehru, having completed his negotiations on the implementation of the $225 million loan extended by the Export-Import Bank and the Development Loan Fund, is returning to India. He and the Ambassador expressed to Mr. Herter their appreciation of the friendly and helpful manner in which the Bank and the Fund had conducted the discussions and indicated the satisfaction with which the Indian Government greeted the terms under which the loans are being extended.

In the course of the conversation, which was in very general terms, the Ambassador raised the question of the U.S. Government’s attitude toward continuing aid to India. The Under Secretary avoided a direct response and turned the conversation to other matters, mentioning the effect present business conditions in the U.S. might have on Congressional attitudes toward foreign assistance and discussing certain [Page 424] features of Senator Monroney’s recent proposals for a new international development loan fund.3 Mr. Nehru was particularly interested in the possible meaning and influence of the resolution on Indian aid proposed by Senators Cooper and Kennedy.4

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 891.10/3–858. Official Use Only. Drafted by Helen R. Nicholl on March 10.↩
  2. Rountree briefed Herter for this meeting in a memorandum of March 5. (Ibid., 033.9111/3–558)↩
  3. In Senate Resolution 264, Senator A. S. Mike Monroney (D.–Okla.) proposed that an International Development Association be established as an affiliate of the World Bank in order to make long-term, low-interest loans, repayable either in whole or in part in local currencies. The Senate adopted the resolution on July 23.↩
  4. On March 25, Senators John F. Kennedy (D.–Mass.) and John Sherman Cooper (R.–Ky.) formally introduced a resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 74), that called on the United States “to join with other nations in providing support of the type, magnitude, and duration adequate to assist India to complete successfully its current program for economic development.” (Congressional Record, Senate, 85th Cong., 2d Sess., March 25, 1958, vol. 104, pp. 5246–5255)↩