444. Telegram From the Ambassador to India (Bowles) to the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow)1
Although I am sure that you are doing all that you can do to help keep the Indian food program moving, I would like in this private and personal message to underscore the critical nature of the food situation here.
Because of unseasonal rains there is increasing hope of scraping by without mass tragedy. But this is wholly dependent upon uninterrupted maintenance of food supplies. While we are encouraged that the situation has been managed better and has deteriorated less than we feared, a large number of highly responsible people, including Steb,2 who have recently visited drought-stricken areas have come back with appalling stories of great human misery and malnutrition.
These reports come to us at a time when we are at a point, if we are not already past that point, where another drop in our food grain arrivals can no longer be prevented. When the experts assured us last fall there would be no slow down in the pipeline, they turned out to be wrong. Grain unloadings for the month of January were a little more than half of what they might have been. Even if we act today to ship whatever share of the 3 million tons the President is willing to approve there is a serious question whether a similar interruption will not be inevitable.
I would also like to emphasize my concern about our recommendation for an additional $75 million worth of Title II foodstuffs. This would enable volunteer agencies which are doing a magnificent job in critical areas to increase the food ration from 5 ounces to 8 ounces, to extend the coverage to many desperately needy people who are trying to survive on roots, bark and grasses and keep the volunteer agency program going into December.
As to the stories, which I understand appeared in the Washington Star, about Indian confusion and indifference, I can only say they are grossly inaccurate and irresponsible. When we first came to realize last fall that Bihar and U.P. would be in deep trouble we agreed that a disaster of this kind could not have hit in a worse place. In Madras, Maharastra, Gujerat, or the Punjab a crash relief effort could be handled with great effectiveness. However Bihar and U.P. are the two most [Page 859] backward and poorly administered states in India. Nevertheless the government employees in that area, ably supported by the volunteer agencies and by steadily increasing numbers of dedicated volunteers, students and others, have been putting on a really remarkable performance in the face of enormous difficulties. The story of the diversion of Canadian milk is also a gross distortion. In fact the transfer was a temporary one which was approved by the Canadian Government to be made up later. The supply is already en route.
I don’t like to trouble you, the President and the Secretary with emotional appeals at a time which I know is difficult for all of you. However, I would be failing in my responsibility if I did not tell you that the situation is desperately serious and is sure to grow worse before it gets better. If you could secure some prompt decisions for us a great many people here would begin to breathe a bit easier.3
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, India, Exchanges with Bowles. Secret. The message was [text not declassified] addressed to the White House.↩
- Mrs. Bowles.↩
- Bowles sent a similar appeal to Katzenbach on May 24 in telegram 17293 from New Delhi. (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, SOC 10 INDIA)↩