123 B 21/338: Telegram
Mr. William Phillips, Personal Representative of President Roosevelt in India, to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:29 p.m.]
242. When Merrell70 inquired of External Affairs yesterday for the fourth or fifth time as to whether there was any reply regarding the designation of Ballantine and Williams as Counselors of Mission the Joint Secretary71 replied that the matter was being considered in London along with other assignments to Delhi (my 190, February 26, 6 p.m.). Weightman indicated informally and incidentally that the expansion of American representation in general and of the American Mission in particular was causing concern among British officials in India.
It is believed that the British, in India at least, feel that the United States is taking too great an interest in India both politically and economically and are worried about the possibility of important foreign representations encouraging Indian Nationalists in their aspirations for independence and about American competition in postwar trade.