795.00/12–2651
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Johnson)
Subject: Sixteen-Nation Statement on Korea—Indian Participation
| Participants: | Mr. F. S. Tomlinson, Counselor, British Embassy |
| Mr. R. H. Belcher, First Secretary, British Embassy | |
| Mr. John D. Hickerson, Assistant Secretary, UN Affairs | |
| Mr. U. Alexis Johnson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs |
Mr. Tomlinson called today at our request to discuss the UK’s proposal that India be consulted with respect to the proposed sixteen-nation [Page 1448] statement on Korea.1 Mr. Hickerson informed him that following discussion with the Secretary, it was our view that it would be unwise and undesirable to approach India with regard to this matter and urged that the UK Government not pursue the matter further. Mr. Hickerson stated that our view was based upon the grounds that: (1) India had carefully disassociated itself from the sixteen nations participating in the military action in Korea, India having been invited to the briefing sessions in Washington of this group and subsequently having failed to appear even though on one or two special occasions we had gone out of our way to inform India of the meetings and invited it to be present; (2) if India were consulted it would raise the question of equality of treatment of other nations, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which also have medical units in Korea; and, (3) the United States continues to attach the highest possible importance to the statement and since we are convinced that India would not subscribe thereto, to consult with it at this time could only result in possibly jeopardizing the issuance of the statement.
Mr. Belcher stated that in the UK view there had been a marked progress in recent months in Indian attitudes towards Communist China and that they therefore did not entirely share our pessimism with regard to the possibility of India’s subscribing to such a statement and, in any event, felt that failure to consult India on a matter of such great Asian importance would result in reversing the present favorable trend of Indian attitudes. They therefore felt that even though consultation with India might not result in obtaining Indian adherence to the statement the effects on India of such consultation would nevertheless be favorable, and conversely the failure to do so seriously adverse.
We suggested the possibility of informing India of the statement at the time of its issuance with the careful explanation of its exact meaning as a method of overcoming any such possible adverse effects.
Mr. Tomlinson and Mr. Belcher promised promptly to report our views to their Government.
- Mr. Tomlinson had made this suggestion, at the instance of the Foreign Office, to John K. Emmerson, Regional Planning Adviser in the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs on December 23 (memorandum of conversation by Emmerson; 795.00/12–2351).↩