India Asks China To Clarify Proposals

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29989, 26 November 1962, Page 13

India Asks China To Clarify Proposals

(N.Z. PA.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, November 24. India has asked China for clarification of her proposals for a cease-fire and disengagement along the Himalayan border, where the lull in the fighting is now in its third day. An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said the Chinese Charge d'Affaires in New Delhi was seeking clarification from Peking. As this new move was announced, the British Commonwealth and Colonial Secretary (Mr Sandys) called on Mr Nehru for an urgent talk on the border crisis.

Earlier, Mr Sandys conferred with the United . States Assistant Secretary of State for the Far East (Mr Harriman), who heads an American mission now in India, and who has already had talks with Mr Nehru. Tonight Mr Harriman called on the Indian President, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. In Moscow today, the Indian Ambassador (Mr T. N. Kaul) called on Mr Khrushchev for a talk, according to Tass. The Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Gromyko) was also present.

Mr Kaul said later that the talk had lasted more than two hours and "it was friendly, cordial, helpful.” He replied “No comment” when asked if the promised supply of Soviet MiG fighters to India had been mentioned In Accra. President Nkrumah, of Ghana, today proposed that Afro-Asian countries and non-aligned Powers should send peace missions to Peking and New Delhi in an attempt to solve the border dispute. An official statement said Ghana's official representative at the United Nations (Mr Alex Quaison-Sackey) had been instructed to put the proposals forward immediately. It said that Dr Nkrumah had made the proposals “so that the border situation may not further deteriorate with the supply of increased arms to both sides.”

It was learned today in New Delhi that the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (Sir Richard Hull), with the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Strike Command (General Paul Adams), will fly to Assam tomorrow Accompanied by senior Indian Army officers, they will make an on-the-spot assessment on the front-line situation While the lull on the front continues, informed sources said tonight that Indian troops were maintaining “visual contacts" with the Chinese in all sectors. Fighting along the border

stopped on Thursday after a unilateral Chinese decision to cease . re. A Peking announcement said that on December 1 Chinese troops would withdraw to positions about 12 miles and a half behind the line of actual control on November 7, 1959. This would restore to India almost all the territory in the North-east Frontier Agency lost since the border war began on October 20, but would leave China in control of a large area of Ladakh, northern Kashmir. India has so far insisted that negotiations can begin only on the basis of a withdrawal to positions held on September 8 this year. China'made a “strong" protest to India today about the treatment of Chinese nationals in India, according to a Peking Radio broadcast monitored in Hong Kong. The protest r -id the Indian Government order detaining Chinese nationals in five areas in Assam and West Bengal was an “unprecedented, atrocious infringement of international law.” The Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman said today that India had asked the International Red Cross for information about military and civilian prisoners in Chinese hands. India held no prisoners, he said. The spokesman said it was understood that the Red Cross proposed to send a delegate

to New Delhi and Peking in this connexion. The British United Press today reported that the 12 Hercules transport planes sent by the United States would fly their first supply missions for Indian forces tomorrow. Their destination is not known, but it is presumed to be Assam. Nehru Thanks New Zealand (N.Z. Pres* Assn^—Copyright) NEW DELHI. November 24. An Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman said the Indian Prime Minister (Mr Nehru) had sent a message of warm appreciation to the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) for New Zealand’s “generous gift** of blankets and dried butter fat. Mr Nehru's message to Mr Holyoake said: “On behalf of the Government of India and on my own behalf, I would like to convey to you our sincere appreciation of your generous gift for our jawans (soldiers)." Messages of appreciation were also sent to the West German Chancellor (Dr. Adenauer) for clothing and equipment, and the Canadian Prime Minister (Mr Diefenbaker) for the gift of six Dakota aircraft, the spokesman said.