The US was aware in advance of Nehru’s plan to refer the Kashmir dispute to the UN for settlement. Nehru is quoted as suggesting a referendum in Kashmir under international auspices. The US preference was a direct settlement between India and Pakistan but would support a UN-supervised referendum in Kashmir with universal adult sufferage. The US viewed India and Pakistan as probably not able to settle without external assistance and preferred the UN be that party. The US notes that India “may attempt to establish the extant electoral rolls as the basis for the referendum. As those rolls are said to contain less than 7% of the population and were compiled on a bais which served to weight the numbers of the wealthier educated Hindu minority who would obviously vote for accession to India, it is important that the electoral body should in fact be composed on a basis of complete adult sufferage in order that the result of the referendum may be representative of the actual wishes of the people of Kashmir.”