Chinese Proposals ‘Manipulation’

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29990, 27 November 1962, Page 13

Chinese Proposals ‘Manipulation’

(NZPA.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, November 25. An Indian spokesman today described the Chinese cease-fire proposals as a “clever manipulation.”

The proposals were designed to project the border line the Chinese claimed as being identical with the line of actual control now established by "massive attack,” the spokesman said. In a prepared statement—the strongest yet officially made—the External Affairs Ministry spokesman said: “The deceptive Chinese proposal on the question of withdrawal of Chinese and Indian troops ... is Peking’s usual method of causing confusion by perverting the meaning of words and by making statemens which bear no relation to reality." Asked if the statement amounted to a rejection of the Chinese proposal, the spokesman would only say, ‘ The proposals are under consideration." The spokesman said the Chinese proposal had created a ‘ certain amount of confusion" about what the Chinese called the “line of actual control as of November 7. 1959 ” "This is in contrast with the Government of India’s position that if the Chinese professions of peace and peaceful settlement of differences are really genuine, let a: least the status quo which obtained before September 8. 1962, when the Chinese committed fresh aggression, be restored first,” the spokesman said. The spokesman said “The whole line of actual control today is not the same line as that which existed on November 7. 1950. If the Position on November 7, 1969. was the same as today, as the Chinese Government claimed, why was it necessary for the Chinese to mount massive attacks to gain further Indian territory?" The spokesman said that if tfie fine of November 7, 1959. Message from Space.— Mariner n, America’s spacecraft bound for Venus, has sent to earth a clear radio message from 22 50M08 miles in space, the National Aerorautics and Space Administration reported.—Washington. November 26.

was taken, the “position will be as stated by the Prime Minister in his letter of November 14.”

He then quoted from Mr Nehru’s letter: “If the Chinese Government really mean what they say regarding the restoration of the November 7, 1959, position of their forces in all sectors of the boundary, their withdrawal to those positions and the restoration of the positions of Indian forces as they were prior to September 8, 1962, would, by and large, meet the problem of disengagement as there will be enough distance between the position of the forces of the two sides to prevent any risk of a clash.”