ECONOMIC WARFARE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27275, 29 December 1949, Page 5

ECONOMIC WARFARE

INDIA AND PAKISTAN REFUSAL TO ARBITRATE NZPA—Copyright Rec. 9.15 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 28. India’s decision to suspend coal supplies to Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistan’s failure to deliver raw jute already bought and paid for by India seems likely to precipitate a fullscale economic war between the two countries, says the New Delhi correspondent of The Times. Newspapers on both sides are clamouring for further reprisals. There is talk on one hand of Pakistan stopping goods traffic on the railway from Assam through East Bengal and petrol supplies for East Punjab through Karachi and Lahore, while on the other hand some Indians are threatening to cut off West Punjab’s supplies of canal water and electric power from headworks and stations in Indian territory. Both Governments profess a determination to last out this war of attrition without compromising on the currency devaluation issue. Pakistan's Commerce Minister, Mr Fazlur Rahman, maintains that Indian policy does not affect his country, and India's Commerce Minister, Mr / Chandra Neogy, asserts that Pakistan has rejected India’s offer to arbitrate their differences.