FIGHTING IN KASHMIR

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25328, 30 October 1947, Page 7

FIGHTING IN KASHMIR

Maharaja Reported To Have Left Capital

INDIAN LEADERS FLYING TO 1 LAHORE

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) NEW DELHI, October 29. The Pakistan radio announced that the Moslem tribesmen who invaded Kashmir were investing Srinagar, the capital, which was in danger of capture; but the Indian Government said the invaders had been driven out of the Srinagar plain into the hills towards Baramula. The Indian Government added that 10,000 Kashmir volunteers were helping State and Indian troops to repel the invasion. Indian fighter planes were escorting air transports of Indian troops to Srinagar because transports had been fired on and damaged during landings.

The correspondent of “The Times” at Srinagar reports that the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and his family have left for Jammu, 95 miles south of Srinagar, in a convoy of a score of vehicles. He is believed to have taken all the State jewels and valuables. Estimates of the strength of the raiders threatening Srinagar vary from several hundreds to 10,000, says the correspondent, but it probably does not exceed 3000.

“Mr Jinhah, Governor-General of Pakistan, last night nearly precipitated war between Pakistan and India,” reports the “.Daily Telegraph” correspondent in Lahore. “Mr Jinpah at midnight telephoned the acting commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army (General D. D. Gracey) at his headquarters at Rawalpindi, commanding him to reply to the Indian Government's move in flying troops into Kashmir by immediately sending troops to recapture Baramula and occupy Srinagar.

“General Gracey told Mr Jinnah that Kashmir had acceded to India and pointed out that to send troops there would be an act of war against the Dominion of India. He begged Mr Jinnah to refer the matter to the Supreme Commander (FieldMarshal Sir Claude Auchinleck), which Mr Jinnah reluctantly agreed to do. Field-Marshal Auchinleck has since arrived at Lahore to use every effort to save the situation. “The Governor-General of India (Lord Mountbatten), the Prime Minister (Pandit Nehru) and the Chief-of-Staff (FieldMarshal Lord Ismay) will fly to Lahore to-morrow in a last attempt to avoid open conflict.”

Reuters New Delhi correspondent says that the meeting arranged between Lord Mountbatten, Pandit Nehru, Mr Jinnah, and Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, at Lahore for to-morrow, has been postponed because of the indisposition of Pandit Nehru. “India and Pakistan are poised perilously before a war which neither would be able to sustain militarily or economically without ruin,” ssys the Calcutta “Statesman” in a leading article. “Both are behaving rashly about certain States, probably to the detriment of the common people’s peace and happiness.” Referring to the situation in Kashmir, the “Statesman” says: “If last week’s alarming incursion of armed

Pathans had the tacit support of Pakistan, it is disgraceful, and will constitute a lasting slur on the new Dominion. If the incursion had Pakistan’s support, it has had the effect, which Pakistan cannot have wanted, of catapulting Kashmir into India’s arms."

“The Nizam ot Hyderabad’s eom-mander-in-chief, General Edroos. who is in London, has ordered nearly £1,000.000 worth of arms," reports the Indian “Express" newspaper. “Money was no consideration.as long as British manufacturers could deliver the arms within a fortnight. The first batch of arms reached Hyderabad on October 24 by air and further consignments are going by sea to Karachi." •