India And Hyderabad: Hopes Of Peace Fade

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1948, Page 5

India And Hyderabad: Hopes Of Peace Fade

(Rec. 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 8. Hope of a peaceful IndoHyderabad settlement has faded, says the Associated Press Bombay correspondent. The Indian Socialist Party’s “struggle” committee urged youths to enter Hyderabad and organise the “workers and peasants for a clash with the totalitarian gangsters.” Hyderabad merchants cabled the Prime Minister of Britain, Mr Attlee, expressing surprise at the recent denial by him in the House of. Commons that Hyderabad is economically blockaded. The Hyderabad Government today described as a “campaign of lies,

possibly designed to pave the way for a full military attack,” the Indian reports of a civil uprising in Hyderabad. (Bombay newspapers claim the virtual collapse of the Hyderabad Government’s authority). Sir Mirza Ismail, ex-Premier of Hyderabad, blames the powerful Moslem organisation. Ittihad ul Muslimeen, for persuading the Nizam to reject his (Ismail’s) advice to come to" terms with India. The Madras office of the Hyderabad State Congress has announced receipt of reports that 83 villages in north-west Hyderabad have declared their independence of the rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad and have established local self-government. Indian Army units, fighting in Hyderabad State territory, relieved the Hadalgi village, which had been besieged for four days by a raiding force of Ra?akars and Pathans.