REMEDIAL EFFECT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26559, 6 September 1947, Page 7

REMEDIAL EFFECT

Co-operation Between India and Pakistan DECLINE IN COMMUNAL TERROR Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 5. The Times in an editorial says there are some grounds for hoping that the worst excesses of Indian communal terror may be over. Outside the Punjab, isolated outrages continue and rioting has rudely broken the unexpected c#lm of Calcutta. Local authorities are acting with energy, curfews are being imposed and order is being enforced without regard to the creed of those who disturb it, and Mr Gandhi’s latest fast seems to have had good effect in Bengal. The situation in the Punjab, however, remains critical, though even here there has been some improvement. There are some signs that the fearful competition in retaliation is declining as the Governments of both Dominions make plain their determination that they will not tolerate it. They are co-operating earnestly and if they continue to do so, peace may be restored to the tortured Punjab. Tours of the disturbed areas by the Prime Ministers and Defence Ministers of the two Dominions have also had good effect.

It is still too early to judge whether the decision to abolish the Punjab boundary force was wise. It exercised a steadying influence, but there were advantages in placing the responsibility for maintaining order squarely upon the shoulders of the Indian and Pakistan armies respectively and the temporary establishment of military headquarters for each force in Lahore should make co-ordination c-asier. • Refugees now number over 1,000,000 —the present serious problem to both Governments. The Sikh rising, carefully planned and carried out with the most ruthless ferocity, has driven a pitiful flood of Moslem fugitives into Western Punjab. The Hindu and Sikh population of that province, fearing reprisals, is moving in a mass to Eastern Punjab. In addition to the grievous individual loss and suffering inseparable from these sudden and almost uncontrollable migrations of immense numbers of people, the economic consequences of recent disturbances will be serious. On each side of the border, thousands of most peaceful and industrious citizens have abandoned their livelihood, and are leaving fields of untilled work undone, and responsibilities, public as well as private, wholly unregarded. The effects will be cumulative and must take long to remedy. Only less serious is the blow to commerce, industry and agriculture from the total breakdown of railway communications between the two dominions caused by systematic attacks upon trains and the blocking of roads by crowds of refugees. Both India and Pakistan have ample cause to repent this fearful outburst of communal intolerance. The lesson for both is that such tragedies can be avoided only by the closest and most vigilant cooperation.