| Downing Street in 1948 |
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GILGIT-BALTISTAN AS INALIENABLE PART OF THE DISPUTED FORMER STATE! THUS, IT MUST BE BROUGHT AT PAR WITH THE OTHER DISPUTED REGIONS BEFORE RESOLVING THE DISPUTE BY FOREIGN OFFICE BAG. DOWNING STREET, L. 154 / 48. 9th February, 1948 My dear Griffin I enclose four copies of a memorandum on the Gilgit Agency which may be of use to you. Copies are also being sent to the Foreign Office, the Washington Embassy and our High Commissioner at New Delhi and Karachi. 2. It will be seen that at the time when power was transferred, Hunza, Nagar, Chilas, Koh Ghizr, Ishkuman, Yasin, Darel and Tangir were recognized to be under the suzerainty of the Maharaja, but not to form part of the State of Kashmir, while Punial and the Gilgit Sub-Division were recognized to form part of the State. The question arises whether the fate of the areas of the Gilgit Agency which were not then recognized as forming part of the Kashmir State should be settled by the proposed plebiscite. 3. You may like to have in this connection the enclosed extract from a note which you wrote on 27th November about the not unconnected case of Mangrol. The position of the Gilgit Agency in relation to Kashmir State after the transfer of power locally on 1st August would seem to depend in part on the position as recognized by us before that date and in part on what effective control, if any, the Kashmir State was able to establish there after the transfer of power. There can be no doubt that the Gilgit Sub-Division and Punial remain part of the State. 4. Having regard to the constitutional position as stated in para 12 of the memorandum, it is presumably possible for Kashmir to maintain that with the transfer on 1st August by our Political Agent to a Kashmir State Governor of responsibility for the conduct of relations with the other parts of the Agency, if that is in fact what happened, the areas in question then become part of the State, even though any effective control which the Kashmir State Governor may have been able to exercise over them proved extremely short-lived. 5. We are not at all sure what can best be done to avoid controversy arising on this subject in which we should become involved. If Kashmir opts for Pakistan as a whole or if the State is partitioned, the problem will not in practice arise. We understand that both the Pakistan Government and the Government of India are aware of the position. Possibly the best course would be for the United Nations Commission to be given in terms the task of setting any doubts as to the boundaries of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Then, if the point arises and it seems desirable they could probably be moved privately to seek from us officially an objective statement of the position when the transfer took place on 1st August, as evidence for their consideration of the point. Your Sincerely (Sd.) H.A.F Sir Cecil Griffin, CSI., CIE., United Kingdom Delegation to the United Nations. NEWYORK. U.S.A. ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS: 1. This important letter is initiated in the initial stages of the formulation of the dispute. Ultimately, Gilgit-Baltistan was fully recognized and documented as the Third Northern Area Province of the former disputed State in the Government of Pakistan, Government of India, other Governments and all UN documents. 2. It will be a futile attempt to delink it from the dispute this time, in order to push it back for the third time into another form of international slavery, oblivion and neglect. The Europeans and the Western World is responsible to a great extent for our plight. The five countries of UNCIP are Belgium, Argentina, Colombia, Czechoslovakia and USA. Let us watch and see the European Union reaction this time. 3. 1st August 1947, is the date of the basis of the dispute. 4. The Governor is of a province and he was the Governor of the Third Northern Area Province of the State of J&K consisting of Gilgit, Baltistan, Laddakh, Gurez and would be part i.e. Chitral, Taghdumbash Pamir, Kohistan. GILGIT Pol. 154/48 Geography and population [ Sir O. caree’s detailed description sent to Curson by Ext. Department D.O. dated 29/1.] 1. The Gilgit Agency lies in the North West portion of the territory shown on the map as Kashmir. How far the various parts of it were legally parts of Kashmir territory is discussed later. [ Duke’s report dated 8.12.47.] 2. It is bounded on the North by the Pamirs and the Karakorams. This boundary marches first with Wakhan (a strip of Afghanistan) and then with the Taghdumbash Pamir of Chinese Turkestan (these two separate India from the U.S.S.R): on the East by Chinese Turkestan and Baltistan in Kashmir; on the South by Districts of Kashmir; and on the west by Chitral.
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