Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of India Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, T. N. Kaul, and Joseph S. Sparks

321 11326 513 DEPARTMENT OF STATE of ARCHIVES SERVICE** RECORD# NATIONAL AND conf Memorandum of Conversation 151 DATE: June 15, 1950 SUBJECT: Government of India Request for official United states Statement clarifying its Policy with regard to Shipment of Arms to India and Pakistan PARTICIPANTS: Her Excellency, Madame Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Ambassador of India. The Honorable, Dean Acheson - Secretary of State. Mr. T. N. Kaul - First secretary, Imbassy of India. Mr. Joseph S. Sparks - SOA COPIES TO: s/s, NEA, SOA, MD, s/MDA, NFA/P, DRN, CIA, American Embassies: New Delhi, Karachi, London, Moscow 1-1493 Madame Pandit apologized for requesting an appoint- ment so soon after my return to Washington but explained that ahe was forced to do so by the deep concern of her Government over statements which had been made by the Pakistan Prime Minister. She said that following the agreement between the Indian and Pakistan Prime Minis- ters of April 8, 1950 it had been understood by the Government of India that Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan would refrain during his trip to the United states from making statements of a disturbing nature. He had, however, made such statements and their effect was to establish a barrier to the carrying out of the agree- ment. Madame Pandit said that her brother, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Ministers had tried very hard to make the Indo-Pakistan agreement workable but that their task had been made almost impossible by Liaquat Ali Khan's speeches. Maintaining that unimportant statements would have been overlooked by her Government, Madane Pandit said that it wes impossible to overlook Liaquat Ali Khan's allegations that India had defaulted in its obligations to deliver Pakistan's equitable share of military equipment DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, 17-28-3333 Us NLT. Hi NARS SECHE