ACTION IN GOA

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29747, 14 February 1962, Page 9

ACTION IN GOA

“Redemption” By India

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, Feb. 12

The Indian action in Goa was not aggression but the “redemption and reunion” of Indian territory, the Indian Ambassador to the United States (Mr B K. Nehru) said yesterday. He said that when India was struggling for freedom it had America’s own struggle for independence as an inspiration. “You too were a colony of the British —very much better treated than we were because you were descended from the British.” Mr N-hru said on a television programme.

“Our action was merely a continuation of our struggle for freedom. We wanted to be free, not only from Bri h domination but also from Portuguese domination.” The picture obtained from headlines in the American press was of an enormous country attacking a small country and behaving ke a bully, he said. That picture was wholly wrong. “Goa is part of India, not part of Portugal,” the Ambassador declared. “The Goans are Indian people” There were 650,000 inhabitants of Goa and only 1348 were Portuguese. “We tried negotiation of every kind,” the Ambassador said. The United Nations General Assembly passed 10 resolutions almost unanimously to the effect that Goa was a colony and that the Portuguese should leave.

India was against the use of force and used it only with reluctance.