Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Africa and South Asia, Volume XI, Part 2

791.5 MSP/2–852

Memorandum by the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs (Berry) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Matthews)¹

secret

[Washington,] February 8, 1952.

Subject:

• Attached Telegram to New Delhi;² 1953 India Aid Program.

Discussion

The attached telegram represents an effort to explain to Mr. Bowles that under the circumstances his proposal to grant $125,000,000 to India for commodities would be unlikely of adoption, and to comment on difficulties being encountered in our efforts to have certain amounts restored to the Mutual Security Assistance program for South Asia. The telegram will necessarily seem disappointing to the Ambassador who is dealing with a most urgent situation; he may as a result reply in a critical vein, especially since he believed he succeeded in obtaining a large measure of understanding and agreement in Washington.³

NEA wishes to make it clear that it continues to regard $150,000,000 program for South Asia in FY 1953 as the minimum which may be expected to achieve our aims, i.e., to help the countries of South Asia, particularly India, to strengthen their national economies as a prerequisite of political stability, and to prevent subversion of a strategic region containing nearly half a billion people and natural resources which play an important part in our defense program.

There is no time to lose. Communist gains in the recent elections in India show clearly that the conditions our program is designed to combat are being successfully exploited by Communist agents. NEA believes that if South Asia is subverted it will be only a matter of time before all of the Asian land-mass and over a billion people will be under Communist domination, and our national security will face an unprecedented threat. NEA believes that if this very real possibility materializes, the Department will find it difficult to defend any action which may have reduced the amount now requested for the region for FY 1953.

Recommendation

That you sign the attached telegram.⁴

1. This memorandum was drafted by T. Eliot Weil and Donald D. Kennedy, the Deputy Director and Director, respectively, of the Office of South Asian Affairs.

2. The draft telegram to be transmitted to New Delhi indicated to Ambassador Bowles that there was no possibility of submitting any supplemental legislation to Congress which would recommend that India be granted additional aid to procure such commodities as wheat and cotton.

   The draft also was designed to inform the Ambassador that the Mutual Security Assistance budget being submittted for India for FY 1953 for economic development called for a grant of approximately $70 million; that the Department was trying to increase this amount of aid; but that it was not practical for Bowles to expect the Department to secure $150 million for economic aid to India.

3. Ambassador Bowles had been in Washington for consultations from Jan. 14 through 17 and from Jan. 21 through 23, 1952.
4. The draft telegram described in footnote 2 above was sent to New Delhi as Department telegram 1631 on Feb. 11, 1952, not printed. It was drafted by Kennedy of the Office of South Asian Affairs and was signed by Secretary of State Acheson. (891.00 TA/2–552)