Office of the Historian

890H.51/12–1549

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Richard S. Leach of the Division of South Asian Affairs

restricted
[Washington,] December 15, 1949.

Subject: Call on Mr. Mathews by Mr. Chouaib, Chargé d’Affaires of the Afghan Embassy.

Participants: Mr. Chouaib,1 Afghan Embassy
SOA—Mr. Mathews2
Mr. Leach

Problem: None

Action Required: None

In calling on Mr. Mathews today Mr. Chouaib said he had come to express his Government’s and his own personal gratification over the recent extension of an Export–Import Bank credit to Afghanistan.3

He said he wished to reflect the friendly feelings of his Government not in a “diplomatic way” as heretofore but to register them from the heart. He also wanted to convey his own and his Government’s appreciation of the hard work which had gone into study on the loan on the part of numerous Department representatives.

He said that the announcement of the loan was of great value to his Government in improved national morale and would serve to reinforce his Government’s basic desire to align itself with the Western democracies. He expressed the hope that the US, as a great power, would never need help but he felt that if difficulties occurred for us Afghanistan would welcome an opportunity to demonstrate her wish to reciprocate the assistance the US had extended to his country.

Mr. Mathews responded to the effect that the loan had been justified through the joint efforts of many Afghan and US officials, and said he hoped we could continue to work together for the social and economic betterment of conditions in the area and its general stability.

  1. Mohammad Chouaib, Counselor of Embassy.↩
  2. Elbert George Mathews, Director, Office of South Asian Affairs.↩
  3. On March 21, 1949, the Afghan Minister of National Economy submitted an “unofficial report” to the Export–Import Bank. A formal loan application was submitted on August 15 (890H.51/12–2849). On November 23, the Bank approved a loan of $21,000,000 to cover construction costs of Kajakai Dam, completion of the Boghra canal system, and such subsequent river development and irrigation projects in the Helmand and Arghandab valleys as might later be approved by the Bank. (890H.51/11–849)↩