Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 156
No. 40
Memorandum of Conversation, Prepared in
the Embassy in India1
ST D–8/1
Subject:
- India
Participants:
- Prime Minister Nehru
- Mr. Stassen
- Mr. Byroade
Mr. Stassen, accompanied by Mr. Byroade, called upon Prime Minister Nehru in his office at 5 o’clock on May 21. The conversation was devoted primarily to discussion of India’s internal economic problem, with primary emphasis upon India’s Five Year Plan. The Prime Minister lead off with a remark that the necessary work inside India was so great that it was with some reluctance that they were distracted from their task of reconstruction internally by the necessary consideration of foreign problems. He traced the rather remarkable transition which India had gone through at the time of her independence and talked of the problem of consolidating the approximately 600 states of India into one united nation.
Mr. Nehru talked at some length about road-building projects upon which people had volunteered their labor and upon the community development work which was under way in India. He felt a great response from the people of India to the efforts being made to improve their lot. It has reached a point, he said, where people actually clamoring for development projects within their home areas, and it was impossible to make rapid enough progress to really satisfy the under-privileged people. He said there had been a question as to whether a few really large works should be put under way or a far greater number of smaller projects. He had decided upon the latter approach while not abandoning continued progress on the larger ones.
In response to Nehru’s invitation, Stassen commented upon what he thought was a major planning task facing the Indian planners. They were at the moment completely engrossed in trying to finish the Five Year Plan. He felt that a continuation of that plan entirely along the lines now envisaged might produce an imbalance between agricultural development and industrial development and that more thought should probably be given to raising the consumption level through industrial development.
The Prime Minister agreed completely with Mr. Stassen’s thesis and there followed considerable discussion on the difficulty of keeping these two phases in balance.
Mr. Byroade stated that those in the Department working on problems in this area were greatly encouraged by the spirit and determination shown in India’s Five Year Plan. He stated that throughout the whole area of Africa and the Middle East so often there is a lack of determined leadership in the tremendously difficult problem of development to improve the lot of the people. He [Page 119] stated that we saw in India a determination to accomplish a task entirely on her own if necessary and that was producing a good response at home. We realize therefore that any help that we might be able to give would be merely to allow the Indians themselves to make faster progress.
Mr. Stassen informed Nehru of our desire to approach the question of aid on a longer term basis than the previous one-year approach and that he had already developed a theme before Congress of the necessity of looking forward to a program of three years duration. It was understood of course that funds would be voted on a yearly basis, but he believed that President Eisenhower, with his present prestige, could reach an informal understanding with Congress upon the longer term approach. Stassen also indicated that a great study was under way in the United States to determine what our trade policy would be and to modernize that policy so that it was consistent with our tremendous responsibility.
- This conversation took place at the Office of the Prime Minister.↩