98. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Jones) and the Minister of the Indian Embassy (Chatterjee), Department of State, Washington, September 19, 19601
SUBJECT
- Indus Waters Settlement
Mr. Chatterjee stated that one of his purposes in calling on Mr. Jones was to convey officially to the Government of the United States the gratitude and appreciation of the Government of India for all that the United States Government had done to contribute to the settlement of the Indus Waters question. Mr. Chatterjee stated that he felt it to be quite appropriate for him to convey this message on the actual day on which the Indus Waters Treaty was being signed in Karachi.
Mr. Jones stated that he believed the major credit for the settlement should go to the two parties primarily concerned—the Governments of India and Pakistan. He said that the settlement was viewed with great satisfaction by the Government of the United States. He said that whatever the scope of the United States participation in the settlement might have been, he believed that its greatest effectiveness lay in the fact that we had not actively intruded ourselves into the negotiations nor had we attempted to place pressure on either of the negotiating parties. Mr. Chatterjee agreed and again expressed the appreciation of his government.
Mr. Jones expressed the hope that the Indus Waters settlement would further contribute to the atmosphere of greater friendliness now existing between India and Pakistan. He said he had been impressed by a statement made to him recently that these two governments should attempt to settle their remaining differences while the present generation of political leaders remained in office because these leaders, on both sides of the border, had been educated together and in many cases were personally known to each other. Mr. Chatterjee agreed that this was a factor on the positive side but said that there was also the negative factor that the present political leaders in both countries still had bitter memories of the slaughter which had occurred on both sides of the border at the time of partition. He indicated that it would take some time for these memories to fade.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 690D.91322/9–1960. Confidential. Drafted by Fleck.↩