DISPUTE OVER KASHMIR

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26319, 13 January 1951, Page 8

DISPUTE OVER KASHMIR

“NO SIGN SEEN OF SETTLEMENT ”

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, January 11. The people of Pakistan are following the progress of the Commonwealth conference with tense anxiety, reports G. Ward Price, of the “Daily Mail,” in a dispatch from Karachi. He says there are fears that if the conference is to end on Friday no effective action will have been taken about Kashmir, and adds: "The Governor of the Punjab (Sirdar Nishtar* said in a speech: ‘lf the Kashmir issue is not settled the whole of Asia will be engulfed in flames of war.’” In London it is believed that the Prime Ministers may be able to do little more than decide on a “metho 1 of procedure” to settle the dispute, but whether this would be acceptable to both Mr Liaquat Ali Khan and Mr Nehru remains to be seen It is recognised in London that unless Mr Ali Khan can take something definite back to Pakistan his own position will be difficult. The Karachi correspondent of “The Times’ 'reports a comment of the Premier of the North-west Frontier Province. The Premier said the attitude of the Western Powers towards Pakistan would undergo a welcome chance if Pakistan decided to leave the Commonwealth. The Premier added that the continued deadlock over Kashmir and the lack of .interest shown in its solution bv the Western Powers had brought Pakistan face to face with the question whether t would not be advisable to reorientate the country’s foreign policy. If a small country like Burma could qur the British Commonwealth and sti 1 maintain her international FPlatipnj, there was no reason why the fifth largest S‘ate in the world and the bigeest Muslim country could not heye an entirely independent existence. W? should live and die for Pakistan, not for America. Russia, or Britain, he said.