INDIAN BORDER BUFFER ZONE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29051, 13 November 1959, Page 13

INDIAN BORDER BUFFER ZONE

Nehru Expected To Accept Chinese Offer (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, November 12. India will accept China’s proposal for a 25-mile-wide demilitarised buffer zone along the 2500-mile frontier between the two countries, but on conditions, according to the “News Chronicle” correspondent in New Delhi. . The correspondent said the conditions, aimed at testing China’s sincerity, were: Chinese troops must withdraw from Indian territory already seized. The troop withdrawals involved on both sides should be a curtainraiser to early talks to settle the whole frontier question.

The correspondent said the Indian Prime Minister (Mr Nehru) was seeking tp avoid being trapped into a false position by seeming to reject a conciliatory gesture.

But at the same time he had to resist conceding Chinese claims.

It was understood that Mr Nehru would put the final touches to India’s reply to the Chinese proposals on Friday before going off on a family holiday to celebrate his seventieth birthday. Indian Defence and Foreign Ministry staffs were now working on the reply, the correspondent added.

The Indian Defence Minister, Mr V. K. Krishna Menon, told reporters at London Airport, where he stopped briefly on his way home from the United Nations in New York, that his country’s foreign policy towards China was unchanged. He said: “The best thing we can 'do is to negotiate. We will not make an issue of the border clashes, but we will defend our own territory. Although we do not shout strong words, we will not be intimidated.” Mr Menon added that India

would not engage help from other countries or from the United Nations in the dispute. The “New York Times” said today that Mr Nehru believed that armed action might be required to force the Chinese from the positions they now occupied on Indian territory. The newspaper’s Washington correspondent said that India’s border dispute with China would be the main order of business when President Eisenhower visited New Delhi next month". Mr Nehru was reported to be ready to give the President a comprehensive review of the problem, diplomatic sources added, and to seek his understanding of India’s position. There was no suggestion, however, that India was prepared to move away from its policy of neutralism, the “New York Times” added. Confidential information received in Washington from abroad showed that Mr Nehru was taking an extremely grim view of the present situation and its potential danger, the newspaper said.