British Press Opinion Condemns Action Of India

Wanganui Chronicle, 15 September 1948, Page 5

British Press Opinion Condemns Action Of India

Recd. 6.25 p.m. London, Sept. 14. Discussing the Hyderabad invasion in an editorial, “The Times” says: “Juridically the Nizam has a clear case because his territory was never part of British India. However, «the Indian Government has decided the Nizam’s insistence on his legal rights is incompatible with the safety of Indian union. India found abundant pretexts for this attitude in a virtual monopoly of power in Hyderabad by the Muslim minority, and teh aggressive tactics of the razarkas, but the underlying cause of the dispute is a clash between India’s contention that a Muslim-ruled State in the heart of Deccan is unsafe, and the Nizam s determination to cling to his rights have proved an awkward obstacle to the Indian Government’s present policy.”

“The Times” adds that the Nizam offered to settle the question of Hyderabad’s accession to India by a plebiscite his people conducted under international auspices. The Indian Governments use of force against a

weaker neighbour which resists its claims, comes badly from a Government that owes existence to the principles embodied in the United Nations Charter. “India's action seems likely to strain still further the relations with Pakistan,” says “The Times.” “The Government of India has chosen to incur a grave risk not only of communal conflict, but something worse—the peace of the Indian Continent is endangered.” “The very least that can be said about India’s invasion of Hyderabad is that it is recklessly precipitate,” says the “Daily Telegraph,” which points out that the pretext of “restoring law and order” has been the small change of the aggressors. “The Indian Government,’ the paper adds, “would be well advised even now, to halt its troops, answer Hyderabad’s case before the Security Council and think again before persisting in a course the consequences of which are incalculable.