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    "localId": "193225126",
    "label": "Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador Chester Bowles, Edwin Martin, and Donald Kennedy",
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    "title": "Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador Chester Bowles, Edwin Martin, and Donald Kennedy",
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            "logicalDate": "1952-06-09",
            "month": 6,
            "year": 1952
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    "seq": 3,
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    "ocrText": "no\nSECURITY INFORM IATION\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\n-3-\nRECORDS\n.\nSERVICE'*\nwhich in the past had been looked upon as an insurance against old age. At\nsome stage too many children became a burden. The Ambassador recognized that\ndiverse incentives would be necessary in order that increased production of\nfood could be maintained. Increased availability of consumer goods was not\nthe only answer. Additional schools and hospitals would also help. Otherwise\nincreased efficiency in agriculture would lead to more leisure rather than to\nmore food in total.\nI said it looked like a massacre to go to Congress for more money now.\nlie had a problem on how to present a request of the sort that the Ambassador\nrecommended. Would we do it under Point IV or as something special? This\nquestion had been fudged in connection with present legislation, and the\nAmbassador could help us sort it out. I believed we could do much more for the\nAmbassador's program next January. There would be new faces in Congress and in\nthe Administration, and we should have ready for them what we thought was sound\nand necessary.\nAmbassador Bowles said he liked to think of a mythical Indian. This Indian\nwould look at the world struggle and consider where he would likely find himself\nin the future. Once this Indian came to the conclusion that democracy might not\nsucceed, he would start to hedge his position. When this happened we would be on\nthe way to losing India.\nAmbassador Bowles asked if it would be possible to pick up any unused funds\nfrom other programs. Mr. Martin said that there was a ten percent transfer\nprovision which gave some flexibility, but with the substantial reduction in the\nAdministration's program imposed by Congress, he thought there would be quite a\nwrangle over the allocations which the Administration would have to make.\nAmbassador Bowles agreed that everybody would fight for his own program and that\nin the final analysis the top officials of the Department would have to judge the\nrelative priority. Mr. Kennedy asked if it would be possible to speed up the\nspending of the money which would be available for the 1953 program in anticipation\nof an approach to Congress in January. I added that the slowness in getting the\n1952 program underway had caused us some difficulty in justifying the larger\namcunts for fiscal 1953. Ambassador Bowles said there would be difficulties in\nthe way of spending the money provided as quickly as that. Tube wells, for\nexample, which were an important part of the Indian program, might take as much\nas two years to complete. Ambassador Bowles also said that India was afraid of\ndeficit financing and in some ways he thought their fiscal policy was too sound.\nThis approach, together with the present high tax level in- India, made it very\ndifficult for the GOI to provide rupees for the community development program.\nThis program required a ratio of 8 to 1 between rupees and dollars. As an\nillustration of the GOI's attitude on fiscal policy, the Ambassador said he had\nbeen surprised to learn that the government was already setting aside out of their\ndevelopment fund rupees in anticipation of repayments on the wheat loan, although\nthese repayments were not due to start for another four years.\nI\nDECLASSIFIED\nE: O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and m\nINVORMATION\nDept. of State letter, A 5/23/26\nBai MLT He MARS 7-16-76"
}