15081950--173 Text of the Telegram dated 15 August 1950 from the United Nations Representative for India and Pakistan Mr. Owen Dixon to the Prime Minister of India

Owen Dixon Report

Supporting Documents

15081950--173 Text of the Telegram dated 15 August 1950 from the United Nations Representative for India and Pakistan Mr. Owen Dixon to the Prime Minister of India

I have encountered a great many difficulties in Karachi but they have now been resolved.

Pakistan continues to stand unequivocally on the position that, under the agreed resolutions of 13 August 1948, 5 January 1949 and 14 March 1950, the decision of the destination of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is to be by an impartial plebiscite. For that reason the Prime Minister has expressed to me the unwillingness of his Government to receive or consider any alternative proposal or plan. I have informed him that I completely understood Pakistan's position, and I have assured him that neither I nor any other authority of the United Nations would regard him or his Government as in the least degree derogating from or prejudicing that position if he complies with the request I have made to him to examine and take into consideration a plan which I am ready to prepare and submit although it is of an alternative character. I have said that I believe that until I have exhausted all possible methods of settlement I have not completed the discharge of my functions. I have said to him that, if Pakistan refused on the ground stated to join in the consideration of the intended plan, it would in my opinion be wanting in the fulfilment of the duty which rests upon both countries to give willing consideration to any plan put forward as containing a possibility of reconciling the conflict between the two countries and thus avoiding the dangers to which the continuance of the conflict exposes both of them. I further told him that I was unable to understand how anyone could regard him as weakening his reliance upon the agreed resolutions, which state that the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite, for no better reason than because he complied with a request from me to give me his willing consideration to the possibility of solving by some alternative the very grave problem which exists. On the faith of these assurances he agreed to comply with my request.

Pakistan is ready to attend the conference on the footing that the presence in my intended plan of a provision for a limited plebiscite will not prove an insuperable objection. Pakistan, however, fears that the conference will break down because India will object to the provisions I will include to secure the fairness of the plebiscite and its freedom from any suspicion of intimidation. I do not share this fear myself because I received the impression in New Delhi that India recognizes that any plan I prepare will necessarily contain provisions which will ensure that the will of the inhabitants of the plebiscite area is freely expressed, uninfluenced by the presence of troops or by the fear of consequences or by other apprehensions, and that in all other respects the plebiscite is fairly conducted. I believe it was also recognized in Delhi that provisions such as I have in mind, operating in a limited plebiscite area, are not open to the objections which might be made to them if they applied throughout the whole State of Jammu and Kashmir.

It would be unfortunate, however, if you were to attend a making in Karachi only to find that you could not consider the plan on its merits as a whole because you objected to the particular provisions which I felt it necessary to adopt to secure the plebiscite from any suspicion that it was not free and fair I think, therefore, that I should inform you in advance that my plan will include a provision for the setting up, in the limited plebiscite area, of an administrative body to carry on in that area the functions of government until the poll is declared. The chairman will be the Plebiscite Administrator or his representative. There will be other United Nations officers. They will be persons of administrative experience and it will be their function to carry on the administration of government in the limited area and not to frame any new policies. Their powers will be ample to exclude from the area all troops of every description. If they decide that for any purpose troops are necessary, the parties must provide them upon request. Their powers will also enable them to secure equality to India and Pakistan in any right granted to lay their views before the people and in other respects.

I have stated this because I do not wish to hold a meeting which is bound to be nothing but a formality. If you are of the opinion that the inclusion in my plan of such provisions in order to secure the freedom and fairness of the plebiscite makes it impossible for you to accept the plan, even after considering it as a whole, and that a meeting would therefore be futile. I will be grateful if you will inform me. Otherwise it only remains for me to set about the preparation of oy plan, and that will occupy me for about four days from the receipt of your reply. After that I would like to convene a meeting in Karachi at the earliest date convenient to you. When I know what date would suit you, it would be then necessary for me to consult Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan as to its being convenient to him.

(Signed) Owen Dixon United Nations Representative for India and Pakistan