CAB129-33 — Page 174

The circulation of this paper has been strictly limited.

It is issued

for the personal use of

Ais Norman Brock

TOP SECRET

Copy No.

31

C.P. (49) 58

14th March, 1949

CABINET

INDIA'S FUTURE RELATIONS WITH THE COMMONWEALTH

MEMORANDUM BY THE PRIME MINISTER

I circulate herewith, for the information of my Cabinet colleagues, copies of the following basic documents which have been drawn up for the guidance of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in preparation for the proposed meeting in April which is to discuss India's future relations with the Commonwealth :-

(i) Constitutional Questions (Annex A).

Most-Favoured-Nation Questions (Annex "

B").

(iii) Implications for Commonwealth Countries of India's Future Status

(Annex "C").

These documents will be used by the personal emissaries whom I am sending out for preliminary discussions with Commonwealth Prime Ministers.

2. None of these documents will be communicated to the Prime Minister of India. Copies of the Documents on Constitutional Questions and Most- Favoured-Nation Questions will be handed by the emissaries to the Prime Ministers of all other Commonwealth countries. Copies of the Implications Document will be handed only to the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The

3. In the light of the Cabinet's discussion on 3rd March I have given a personal directive to each of these emissaries. This makes it clear that they should begin by outlining the great political advantages of retaining India within the Commonwealth especially at a time when the Commonwealth influence is more than ever needed throughout South-East Asia in combating the encroach- ment of Communism from the north and east. They are then to explain that sustained efforts have already been made to persuade India to agree that her continuing membership of the Commonwealth should be based upon recognition of the special position of the Crown, but that the United Kingdom Government have come to the conclusion that they alone may not be able to persuade the Indian Government to accept any substantial link through the Crown. proposal for a meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers has therefore been put forward in the hope that, if there is a common desire on the part of all other Commonwealth Governments that India's continued membership of the Commonwealth should be founded on continuing recognition of the Crown, the Indian Government may be influenced by the united view of the other Governments and induced to find some means of reconciling such a link with the constitution which their Constituent Assembly are about to adopt. It is only after emphasising these preliminary objectives of the proposed meeting that the emissaries are to go on to deal with the situation envisaged in the attached memoranda. They will thus make it clear that it is only if these attempts fail that the Commonwealth Governments will be faced with the question, discussed in these papers whether the constitutional basis of the Commonwealth connection

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