Indian Mediation Sought By Ho

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30981, 10 February 1966, Page 13

Indian Mediation Sought By Ho

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW DELHI, Feb. 9. President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam has sent a letter to the Indian President, Mr Radhakrishnan, asking him to use his good offices for the restoration of peace in Vietnam.

This was announced by the North Vietnam ConsulateGeneral in New Delhi early today. A spokesman at the consulate said the letter was delivered on January 24. He said it was part of a routine letter the President had sent to some heads of State and Governments, such as President de Gaulle of France. The contents of the Note were not officially disclosed. Informed sources said, however, that the Note attacked United States “aggression” in Vietnam but also suggested that India, as the neutral chairman of the International Control Commission, initiate efforts to end the fighting. State Department sources in Washington said that they had no word of the letter. Tass, the official Soviet news agency, said in a Hanoi dispatch that North Vietnam had sent the International Control Commission in Vietnam a message of protest urging the United States “to stop encroachments on the sovereignty and territory of - the Democratic Republic of Viet-

nam and also to put an end to the aggressive war in South Vietnam.” There was no reference to a message to India.