STORM CLOUD OVER INDIA

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14568, 12 January 1948, Page 3

STORM CLOUD OVER INDIA

EFFECT OF KASHMIR TROUBLE

Dispute Before Security

Council

Views Of Two Dominions

Differ

London, Jan. 11

The Kashmir dispute which is before the Security Council has thrown a storm cloud over the whole continent of India. In a despatch from New Delhi, a correspondent says that the question which everyone is asking is “Will the Security Council confine the discussion to the Kashmir dispute, or will it accept Pakistan’s view that Kashmir is only one cf the many interlocking problems which have to be considered together?” To understand the complicated problems, the correspondent said, one has to go back to August. When Britain transferred power to India and Pakistan the Hindu Maharajah of Kashmir favoured joining India. About four months ago, Moslem raiders from the tribal areas of Pakistan crossed into Kashmir and the Maharajah signed a treaty with India and appealed for help. Since then Indian troops, now about 15,000 strong, have been trying to drive out some 50,000 tribesmen from Kashmir.

Ever since the trouble started, the Governments of India and Pakistan have been trying to find a way to stop the fighting but without success. India has accused Pakistan of supporting the raiders and allowing them to use bases in Pakistan. Pakistan has not admitted this, and has replied that Indian troops have no right to be in Kashmir at all. Both Governments think the people of Kashmir should be consulted, but neither can agree on the terms for a plebiscite. India insists that Kashmir must be cleared of the raiders and order restored before the vote is taken, and Pakistan insists that all outsiders, raiders and Indian troops alike, must go before a proper plebiscite can be held. Whatever the Security Council does, the correspondent says that everyone is agreed that a practical solution must be offered almost immediately. If the Security Council fails, it might lead to war which neither Dominion wants and which almost certainly would be disastrous for both.