INDIA AGAINST BAN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31340, 10 April 1967, Page 13

INDIA AGAINST BAN

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) NEW DELHI, April 9.

The Indian Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi, has indicated that India is largely opposed to a treaty to ban the spread of nuclear weapons because of the threat of atomic blackmail from China.

The United States and the Soviet Union have been pressing the 17-nation disarmament conference in Geneva to agree to a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Speaking at a conference of the country’s chief Ministers yesterday, Mrs Gandhi was quoted as saying it is “difficult to accept proposals that bind down nuclear have-nots”

in the development and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while leaving nuclear powers “free to proliferate and improve upon the most terrible weapon of mass destruction.” China Unnamed

“We are not really concerned about our own security,” she said. “India is peculiarly placed in this regard. But we must find a way of dealing with the possible problem of nuclear blackmail.” She did not name China specifically, but observers interpreted her remarks as an expression of growing concern over the nuclear threat from Peking. It was reported recently that India now has the capability of manufacturing nuclear weapons, but there has been no indication that she has done so. India has subscribed to the partial nuclear test ban treaty drafted by the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. The neutral nations at Geneva, including India, have balked at a non-proliferation treaty in spite of assurances

from Washington and Moscow that it would not hamper their use of nuclear devices for peaceful purposes. Food Crisis Mrs Gandhi met with the State officials to discuss India’s food crisis. She warned that prices of food and other consumer commodities would continue to rise in, the next few months because of drought, inflation and declining agricultural and industrial production. She said that the problem would remain critical even though India was getting nearly 10 million tons of food grains from abroad. Mrs Gandhi said India must learn to live within her means to overcome the looming food and economic crisis. She said that 10 million tons of food imports promised by countries, together with India’s own production of 76 million tons of food, would just see India through this year. “Supreme Efforts” But it would not absolve India from making supreme efforts to procure food inside the country to help areas hit by successive droughts, she added. •This will not be an easy situation and there will be no soft options,” she said. “We must live within our means through increased production,” said Mrs Gandhi.