Himalayan Times (1956)

December 16, 1966

Fire

CUR LONDOM LETTER

BY B. |B RAY CHAUDHURI

( Our Loudon Correspondent )
Loudon, December 9

Next wnek-end Pandit
Nehru will be in London
on his way to America
and will itop here for
twelve hour*. Within that
short period of his stay
in London he will have
the busiest time. At the
Airport he will, of course,
be received by Lord
Home, the Secretary of
Commonwealth Relations;
American Embassy
officials; our High Com-
missioner, and other no-
table British and Indian
personalities. He will have
opportunity to meet Lord
Mountbatten. Meanwhile,
Panditji can rest assured
that there will be no
common ground of under-
standing between the Tory
Government of Britain
and India. The Editorial
of to-day's " Sunday
Times " points out:—''Mr.
Nehru'n claim to preach
to us or othi rs about
our duty to the United
Nations is, frankly, hum-
bug. Pandit Nehru and
his legate Mr. Menon did
their best to sab tage the
18-nation Plan for the
Suez Canal, backed as it
was by Asian and Afri-
can as well as European
power...Time and again he

has frustrated all efforts
of the United Nations io
resolve the Kashmir dis-
pute by a free plebiscite.
When it suits him, as in
the invasion of Hydera-
bad, he has be«n as in
the use of force as any
other power politician. The
attitude of India oblig°s
us to oonsider carefully
the question whether the
Commonwealth, of which
she, too, is a member,
has any genuine mean-
ing." Tl is is the Tory
view. Fortunately, the
Government stands con-
demned in the eyes of
more than half the British
population. There is a
talk of a General Flec-
tion next year, and it is
the fervent hope of many
Britishers that the Labour
will return to power and
sanity prevail one* again
in place of to-day's
neurotio Toryism.

The trend of diplo-
matic manoeuvre io the
next post-Suez phase be-
comes evident this week-
end. Two meetings of
heads of State are now
arranged. But another is
still indefinite-despite
intense diplomatic acti-
vity. This is the pattern:

Mr Nehru lands at Lon-
don Airport next Satur-
day morning—a few hours
after Sir Anthony Eden's
return from Jamaica. Mr.
Nehru will not fly on to
Washington for his talks
with President Eisenhower
until, twelve hours later
The flight plan has been
carefully arranged so that
Mr. Nehru and Sir An-
thony can meet. The
American President now
aocepts Mr. Nehru as the
responsible leader of the
Afro-Asian Powers and is
counting on his support
for a polioy of effeot.ive,
UNO operation in the
Middle East.

Unless President
Eisenhower makes a last-
minute gesture, Sir An-
thony returns to West-
minister under the cloud
of a sevt re Amerioan
snub. Goldeneye, his Ja-
maica retreat, is only
1,400 miles (4i-hrs' flying
time) from Washington.
But there has , been no
invitation yet. Foreign
Secretary Selwyn Lloyd
failed to meet either the
President, or Secretary of
State John Foster Dulles
in Amarioa reoently.

Mr. Christmas Hum-
phreys is a most unusual
man. At the time of his
appointment as Recorder
of Guildford, he was lead-
ing the Western delega-
tion to last month's cele-
brations in Kathmandu
(Continued on page 10)