INVASION OF GOA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27427, 13 August 1954, Page 11

INVASION OF GOA

Indian Plans For March (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) BOMBAY, August 11. Demonstrators today were preparing for their march on the Portuguese settlement of Goa on Sunday—lndia’s independence day—in spite of the exchange of Notes .between Portugal and India on sending neutral observers to Portugal’s possessions in India. Ths demonstrators, who demand the union of Portuguese settlements with India, are also planning a march into Damao, another Portuguese -settlement on the west coast of India, about 350 miles north of Goa. Dr. T. B. Cunha, chairman of the ‘Goan Action Committee,” said in Bombay today that plans to march on Goa would go ahead according to plan. Proposals for sending neutral observers had - nothing to do with the committee’s plan to liberate Goa, he said. In Surat, Mr Ishverlal Desai, the Praja Socialist leader, said he would lead a peaceful march of 1000 demonstrators to Damao on Sunday. But he said they would not join forces with the Communists and would have to sign a pledge of non-violence. Mr Desai said he would try to plant the Indian flag in Damao at the same time as Mr Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, unfurled a flag at New Delhi to celebrate independence day. Leaders of the Goan “liberation movement” said today that several groups which had been acting separately had now decided to unite in the march on Damao. Reports in Bombay said scores of “volunteers” were converging on Selvassa to join the march. Reported Entry of Damao Another report reaching Bombay said the Communist Goan People’s Party and another extremist group had already entered Damao. The two groups were said to have entered the Portuguese enclave of, Agar-Aveli, north of Bombay, and to have taken over many villages. Officials in Bombay disclaim any knowledge of the situation around, the Portuguese settlements. But one official said an information officer was being sent to Belgaum, headquarters of the demonstrators planning to march on Goa, to report on the situation.

A Communist Party committee statement issued in Bombay said the “liquidation” of Portuguese pockets in India had begun and the stage of “liberating” the main centre of Portuguese authority in India—Goa—had arrived. Young men carrying collecting boxes and placards saying “Aid the Goa liberation movement” mingled with office workers on their way home tonight. Travellers reaching Karwar, on the Goa border, said a three-mile strip inside the Goa frontier had been declared out of bounds to civilians, according to the Press Trust of India. The trust also said official sources confirmed that 150 Portuguese troops had disembarked from two sloops at Anjidev, a Portuguese island off the Karwar coast.

Damao was reported to have been fortified by the Portuguese authorities with local and African soldiers from Portuguese East Africa.