795.00/1–2351: Telegram
The United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin) to the Secretary of State
1047. Re Korea—Peiping note. Sharma (India) told mission officer Monday afternoon that questions put to Chou En-lai were raised by [Page 119] St. Laurent, Canadian Prime Minister, in correspondence with Nehru.
Reply as given by Rau was text handed to Panikkar by Chou En-lai.
Responding to question, Sharma said Indian delegation here did not have text of questions put to Chou En-lai.
Sharma urged view that reply showed Peiping had moved sufficiently from original position to demonstrate it desired cease-fire and was coming to negotiable frame of mind. Sharma thought agreement on cease-fire first met our principal difficulty. Point three in reply (Chinese Communists status in UN) was to him big retreat from previous insistence on seating before negotiations. He thought it meant Peiping would agree to cease-fire and negotiations so long as discussion of UN seat was assured at conference.
He argued strongly that new reply meant we were much closer to peace, and that we (not specifying whether “we” meant UN or US) should seize opportunity to press for further clarification from Peiping in effort to get their agreement on cease-fire principles.