Soviet "Cold War" Soon Against India

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 November 1950, Page 5

Soviet "Cold War" Soon Against India

NEW YORK, Nov 23 (Recd 11.15 pm).—The Soviet Union would begin a cold war against India and India’s neighbours after establishing military bases in Western Tibet, Robert Trumbull, New Delhi correspondent of the New York “Times,” said today. The eventual objective of the cold war, he said, could be to force India and adjacent countries into full subservience to Soviet policy, it not their addition to the Russo-Communist family of nations. Trumbull said this information came from intelligence sources who had disclosed fiat the Soviet already had made surveys of Western Tibet military base.. India one day would face two alternatives :

(1) In return for alliance with the Soviet bloc, India would be offered a position of dominance in Asia, Russian machinery and other means for developing her natural resources, Russian wheat and other needed foodstuffs in return for strategic materials, such as jute, manganese and all the advantages of having a friendly poweron her cord m.

(2) Internal revolution for which the Comunist Party of India is preparing, in which the Government's hold on the army and police would be undermined by Communist agitators. Trumbull said that if the Communist revolutiion failed but the Russians went ahead with their plans for powerful bases in Tibet, India would still be sitting with a gun pointed at her head. India, in that case, would have a hostile' power on her borders capable of crippling her by air attack and if there were war India would be caught in a pincers movement from Tibet and Chinese forces operating through Burma. All these conditions would apply unless, in the meantime, there had been counter-activity by the Western Powers, specifically the United States, that would nullify the Soviet plan for South and South-east Asia.