INDIAN-CHINESE TALKS ON BORDER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29058, 21 November 1959, Page 13

INDIAN-CHINESE TALKS ON BORDER

Nehru Sets Conditions For Settlement

. (NJS. Preu Auociation—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW DELHI, November 20. _ A tetter te°m Mr Nehru, to the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Chou En-lai, agreeing to meet Mr Chou, provided that they first try to reach an “interim agreement on border problems, was revealed in New Delhi today.

j e^. ru s to Mr Chou said India would withdraw in the Ladakh region behind the boundary line claimed by China, if the Chinese would withdraw behind the frontier line claimed by India. Mr Nehru’s letter was in reply to a letter from Mr Chou on November 7. Mr Chou suggested that both sides withdraw 12 miles from the disputed border; but Mr Nehru told Parliament that this was impracticable, since it left the Chinese in possession of some 8000 square miles of territory in Ladakh which India considered hers.

Mr Nehru asked Mr Chou to suggest a time and place for a meeting between them. Mr Nehru also said the Chinese should withdraw from the Longju outpost on the north-east frontier, from which the Chinese drove an Indian patrol in August. Apart from agreeing to a withdrawal in Ladakh and at Longju, Mr Nehru suggested that elsewhere both sides should not send patrols out in order to avoid a clash. -

Mr Nehru yesterday told -the joint Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Foreign Affairs that India is confident she can deal with Chinese intnusions into Ladakh and the North-east Frontier Agency. He told the committee there was ino need for apprehension, and isaid India’s forces could handle the situation. Mr Nehru also tood the committee that the Govfernment had collected documents) and maps, some published by the Chinese to show the authenticity of the McMahon line as the north-east frontier and of traditional boundaries in the Ladakh area. Earlier today, Mr Nehru told the Lower House .of Parliament that he qould give? no precise information about whether or not the Chinese had built an airstrip on Indian territory in Ladakh.

Travellers had told of it, but no officials had seen it, although the Government was trying to find out more about it. He also told the House that the Government/proposed to deal more harshly in Suture with antiIndian propaganda made by the Chinese in the Himalayan border town of Kalimpong.

In Peking today, the Chinese press said thai Right-wing Indian politiciansi were doing their best to prevent Indian-Chinese talks aimed at settling the border dispute. It also acqused the United States of trying to persuade India to reject! the Chinese proposals for a (demilitarised zone along the border and an early meeting between Mr Nehru and Mr Chou.