Telegram from Washington to New Delhi, 'Question of Dispatching of Goodwill Mission to Latin American Countries'

File No: 29(2)-X/47

Question of Dispatching of goodwill mission to Latin American countries

FROM: Bajpai, Washington

TO: Foreign, New Delhi

DATE: December 31, 1946 (received 1^st January 1947)

Tel: 152

SECRET

Please refer to my telegram No. 151 dated December 31^st to Food Department

The food crisis in India has already brought Argentine, and now Cuba as possible sources of supply. The predominantly agricultural economy of Latin America is complementary rather than supplementary to ours. In any case the possibilities of mutual advantage through direct intercourse seems worth investigating. India probably has not sufficient trained man-power to establish diplomatic or even consular relations with all Latin American Republics. Only ad hoc investigation can help to determine what is desirable and what is feasible in developing our relations with countries which geographically occupy more than a continent, which politically muster more than one third of total votes in the United Nations, and which economically present a picture rich in accomplishment and even richer in opportunity. The dispatch of a Goodwill Mission of courtesy and enquiry to these countries in the near rather than the remote future would seem well worth considering.