SETTLEMENT PLAN IN GOA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27426, 12 August 1954, Page 11

SETTLEMENT PLAN IN GOA

Portugal Rejects Indian Reply (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LISBON, Aug. 11. The Portuguese Foreign Ministry today said it did not regard India’s reply to the Portuguese proposal to send neutral observers Jo Portuguese India and continguoys Indian territories as acceptance of what Portugal actually proposed. Earlier, Britain had expressed its pleasure that In<}ia had agreed to the suggestion. A Foreign Office-spokes-man said Britain was glad to note that India was determined to pursue a peaceful and conciliatory approach towards the situation in Portuguese India. Portugal said India’s reply accepted only an inquiry by observers inside Portuguese possessions, “while the serious events reported are precisely invasion movements organised in Indian territories.” The Prime Minister of Portugal (Dr. Antonio Salazar) asserted Portugal’s right to Goa and other possessions in India in a nation-wide broadcast last night. Dr. Salazar reviewed the history of Portuguese possessions in India, and said: “The right remains a right We are realists and do understand that the Indian Union can make the existence of the Portuguese territories practically insupportable. “For this she has the superiority of initiative, proximity, her own greatness, and material force. But if the Indian Union is realistic, she will take

into account conscience. If she is realistic she will understand that our attitude is not the caprice of a government. but the imperative of a nation which in all dignity means to denounce the violation its right and to defend its territory.”