'File 9/43 Invitation to Shaikh of Bahrain to attend the Karachi Economic Conference' [‎15r] (29/34)

COPY
(PR 3620/38/913)
CONFIDENTIAL.
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.l.
f 7
28th November, 1949.
Dear Information Officer,
A Soviet commentary for listeners in Persia included an attack on
the Economic Conference of Islamic countries shortly to be held in
Karachi.
The commentator remarked that the Pakistani Finance Minister
‘’assuming the physiognomy of a learned man," had said that the question
of applying Islamic principles to economic tendencies was rather
complicated. But, he added, upon looking into the matter it became
clear that the Minister himself was"not unwilling to create
complications And to divert the attention of public opinion from the
real aims of the conference."
In the course of. last summer, the commentator continued,
Khalegh Al-Zaman, head of the Pakistan Moslem Union, suggested that
a conference should be held to discuss plans for the setting up of
"Islamistan", and afterwards visited the countries of the Near and
Middle mast to take local soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. . At first the nature of "Islamis-
tan" was outlined only vaguely as a collective organisation embracing
the Near and Middle East. Later, however, Khalegh Al-Zaman became
more precise, and "admitted" in a speech in Cairo that "the iormation
of ’Islamistan’ would be tantamount to an Atlantic Treaty for Eastern
countries from Pakistan to Turkey.". The Pakistan newspaper "DaWN"
had supplemented this by explaining on its own account that the idea
was to band together the Moslem countries "in a strong coalition with
a common defensive and economic system, like the Western coalition."
Thus, the commentator concluded, from the foregoing evidence,
coupled with Kahlegh Al-Zaman’s subsequent visit to London to discuss
the project it had become clear that the purpose of the Karachi
conference would be to prepare the ground for tne creation 01 "a milit
ary and political bloc of the Moslem countries", resembling the
Atlantic group in its aggressive and anti-Soviet character.
We thought you might be interested to see, and perhaps to
mention in the right quarter, that this conference has attracted
a rather forceful criticism. As usual, the fear of any regional
solidarity in the Islamic world has provoked this attack. We have
sent similar letters to Information Officers at the other Posts whose
countries were represented at the conference, and copies to Moscow,
Batavia and Singapore for information.
Yours ever,
information research department
Information Officer,
BAHREIN.
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