Office of the Historian

793B.00/7–1651

The Consul General at Calcutta (Wilson) to the Department of State

top secret
No. 21
Calcutta, July 16, 1951.

Ref: Department’s telegram 91, July 12 to New Delhi, repeated Calcutta as 23.

Subject: Transmitting Copy of Document Forwarded to Dalai Lama Through Tibetan Contacts at Kalimpong.1

I have the honor to refer to the Department’s telegram No. 91 dated July 12, 1951, to the Embassy at New Delhi, which was repeated to Calcutta as No. 23, and to transmit herewith a summary of the Department’s telegram, which Vice Consul William G. Gibson of this office took to Kalimpong on July 14, in accordance with the instructions contained in the Embassy’s telegram No. 34 of July 13, 1951, to Calcutta.2

The enclosed message, from which all references to the United States have been deleted in a manner similar to the message transmitted to the Department with the Embassy’s top secret despatch No. 70 of July 11, 1951, represents a paraphrase of the information conveyed by the Department to Taktser Rimpoche, elder brother of the Dalai Lama, in Washington on July 12, 1951. The reference to the possibility of asylum in the United States (last sentence of paragraph 3) was inserted at the suggestion of the Embassy.3

Mr. Gibson took with him two copies of the message, which, as the Department and the Embassy have already been informed, he handed to Tsepon Shakabpa and to [name deleted], respectively, for onward forwarding to the Dalai Lama.

In preparing this message we repeated the references to Tibetan [Page 1754] autonomy which are contained in the Department’s telegram No. 91, although it may be difficult to convey to the Tibetans exactly what the Department has in mind, in view of the fact that the Tibetan language does not differentiate between the concepts of autonomy and complete independence (see Consulate General’s despatch No. 625 of June 28, 1951).4

Evan M. Wilson
  1. The document, unsigned, undated, and unaddressed, is not printed.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. In telegram 34 to Calcutta, the Embassy instructed the Consulate General to add this “in order not give impression USG has withdrawn its previous assurance re asylum in US” (Calcutta Post Files: Lot 56 F 55).↩
  4. Not printed.↩