247. Telegram From the Embassy in India to the Department of State1
1274. For Agr Sec Freeman from Bowles. Minister of Agriculture Subramanian is eagerly looking forward to opportunity to visit with you at FAO Conference in Rome where I understand you will both be on Nov. 19. The difficult agricultural situation with which Subramaniam is dealing, as you know, is now further complicated by what appears to be worst monsoon pattern in fifty or sixty years.
For the long haul GOI is deeply committed to an all out program of increased fertilizer output, better seeds, better use of water, expanded extension [service?], etc. Much of their new fertilizer and improved seed effort is to be concentrated on 30 million specially selected irrigated acres where they believe they can double present output in next five years.
Although we must of course continue to carry out the plans which they have laid down, it is also important that we convince Subramaniam that we have confidence in him personally. He is by all odds the ablest Minister in cabinet, vigorously pro-American and with great amount of courage. In the last two weeks he has performed valiantly answering attacks of left wing element who have charged that we have been using PL480 food as political lever. However, he is genuinely baffled when he reads statements in US press that his Ministry is not doing all it should in regard to agriculture since he has adopted just about every suggestion we have made in the sixteen months he has had job.
Therefore I earnestly hope you will encourage him and thank him for all he has done for India’s future. He needs to feel that we are behind him. He has stuck his neck out politically in our behalf and his political career is committed to cooperation with the United States.
He will want to know from you about (a) outlook for a long-range PL480 agreement; (b) our ability to go beyond 500,000 tons per month if the supply situation becomes really desperate and (c) possibility of freeing some US foreign exchange to enable him to buy 700,000 tons of fertilizer (which we have been insisting upon) in time to affect crops which will be planted next June or July.
Although I know your time is short before you leave for Rome it would be most useful if you could arrange to bring Subramaniam back from Rome to Washington for further talks with some of the people [Page 468] there who are not aware of what India has now committed itself to do and who are therefore genuinely sceptical that India will follow through on this effort.
If this not possible I would appreciate somehow arrange with Subramaniam to [visit] India to see for yourself what has been undertaken here since your last visit eighteen months ago and to share with GOI our thinking about what more they ought to be doing.
With considerable difficulty we have been sitting on the lid here for several months and I am confident that India is now at a turning point. It could move strongly in our direction but if we should twist the screws a bit too tight we may lose all we are seeking to gain. Do let me know whether you can invite Subramaniam back to Washington or if not, whether you might possibly be able to come to India yourself soon.
Regards.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, AGR 1 INDIA. Confidential; Immediate; Exdis. Passed to the White House.↩