PORTUGAL WARNED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29616, 12 September 1961, Page 21

PORTUGAL WARNED

Enclaves In India

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, Sept. 10. India has warned Portugal that the Indian Government would be “fully entitled” to take all necessary measures if the situation in Portugal’s possessions in India should “deteriorate and constitute a threat to peace and security in the Indian sub-continent.” In issuing the warning, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said the people of the Portuguese possessions of Goa, Daman and Diu had been struggling for a long time against Portuguese colonial rule. ‘‘The time is not far off when they shall be able to achieve their liberation,” he said. The spokesman was commenting on Portugal’s protest to the Security Council on Wednesday that India had threatened “aggression” against Goa. Portugal denied allegations of repression there. Portugal protested to India last month over the merger with India, effective on August 11, of the Portuguese enclaves of Dadra and NargarHaveli, whose people, Mr Nehru told Parliament, had unanimously sought the merger. In Bombay the Goan National Union, in a letter to the Security Council, demanded that Portugal should either effect a “prompt settlement of freedom for Goa, Diu and Daman and quit India, or face the proposition of being thrown out.”