CAB129-78 — Page 250

Page 250

TOP SECRET

Outward Telegram from Commonwealth Relation35 Office

TO:

U.K. HIGH COMMISSIONER IN INDIA

(Sent 18.30 hours 9th December 1955)

CYPHER IMMEDIATE

No. 2731

TOP SECRET

BAGDAD PACT ETC.

294

Your telegram No. 1384.

Subject to your views please pass following message from Prime Minister to Mr. Nehru:-

1.

I am glad to have your message about the Bagdad Pact, etc. and I am grateful to you for explaining your views so frankly. You know how much weight I attach to your own personal judgment and to the views of your Government. I shall be equally frank in reply, especially since I think I can reassure you on several matters that are causing you concern.

2. You fear that the arrangements we have been making in the Middle East could lead to counter measures, and that there is a danger of international tension being increased thereby. We believe that it is only through such arrangements that the expansionist designs of Soviet Russia can be arrested. We have no thought in this to deny the right of the Soviets to have the kind of internal government they want. Our quarrel is with militant international Communism. This can only be held by bringing threatened countries together in co-operation for their mutual security and by promoting their welfare through joint economic and social effort. In Europe we believe this has been done by the establishment of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. If we had not stood united we believe that all our freedoms would by now have been submerged. Our bitter experience of Soviet tactics has convinced us that the ultimate aim of Communism is world domination and that all means which may further this end are regarded as good ones. The fate of such countries as Czechoslovakia and the threat to Yugoslavia are still fresh in our minds. Of course we all hope that with time the Soviets will see that such aims are unattainable. This year there have been some encouraging signs of an easing in tension. We have done what we could to help in this way. But the Soviet attitude at the most recent Geneva meeting and many of their recent actions lead us to doubt whether Soviet policy has in fact changed. It appears to us that they may simply be following fresh tactics to achieve the same ultimate end of Communist world domination.

3. Against this background we welcomed the decision of Turkey and Iraq to co-operate for their security and defence and we could not question the decision of Pakistan to accede to the Pact. The Pact, we believe, provides an effective machinery for meeting the threat of international Communism to the Middle East. But it is not aggressive in character; it is designed to give security and stability to countries who are uncomfortably close to the borders of the Soviet Union. It is based on Article 51 of the United Nations Charter and seems to us in no way inconsistent with the statement issued by the Bandoeng Conference that respect should be paid to the right of each nation to defend itself singly or collectively in conformity with the United Nations. Charter.