INDIA AND PAKISTAN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 116, 1 March 1950, Page 5

INDIA AND PAKISTAN

ALI KHAN ISSUES . WARNING COMMUNAL RIOTING (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) LONDON, February 28. “1 have said before, and I say again, that we have no aggressive intentions towards India, but that if India wants war she will find us fally prepared,” said thp Prime Minister of Pakistan (Mr Liaquat Ali Khan) at a press conference in Karachi yesterday. He id quotecf by the Karachi correspondent of “The Times.” *

Mr LiaquatAli Khan was replying to a statement by the Prime Minister of India (Pandit Nehru) that, if Pakistan did not accept India’s proposals for dealing with communal rioting in Bengal, India “would'have to adopt other methods.” Pakistan has rejected the Indian proposals. It was “a wicked lie,” Mr Liaquat Ali Khan said, to a suggestion that the murder of (Hiiidus and the looting of their property in East (which is part of Pakistan) had led to wider outbreaks of violence.

Mr Liaquat Ali Khan said that Pandit Nehru’s suggestion for a joint tour by the Premiers of East and West Bengal and the appointment of a factfinding commission could achieve little. The fact-finding commission would degenerate into a fault-finding commission.

* The rioting, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan continued, had started in West Bengal, within the Indian Republic, and had gone on for some time before East Bengal retaliated. The cofnmunal situation in East Bengal was now normal. , Mr Liaquat Ali Khan asserted that Indian propaganda had deliberately mutilated the facts and bad maligned Pakistan. ri

He added: “The truth of the matter is that the Indian leaders have not accepted Pakistan, and keep on devising methods of undoing it. But Pakistan is an unalterable fact, and the sooner this is realised by the Indian leaders, the better it will be for the stability, and progress of the Indian subcontinent.” Mr Liaquat Ali Khan said that the East Bengal trouble had been the first in India since the partition of the Indian sub-continent, and had been the direct result of incidents in West Bengal in January and early February. “threat” Seen from India

Referring to Pandit Nehru’s statement in the Indian Parliament last week that India would have to adopt “other methods” if Pakistan would not agree to the Indian plan for inquiring into the Bengal disorders, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan said: “I invite all the peaceloving ’nations of the world to note this threat.” The only remedy for communal rioting throughout the subcontinent would be “an honest acceptance of the fact of the partition of India into Bharat and Pakistan.” The rioting in West Bengal had been “the direct result of open incitement carried on by tbe Hindu Mabasabfaa* with its storm troopers, its murderous gangs, * and so-called Council for the Protection of the Rights of Minorities, which we know is training its own irregular army without interference from i' the Indian Government,” Mr Liaquat Ali Khan continued. Fifteen thousand refugees had entered East Pakistan from West Bengal, and at least 20,000 more lay huddled in and around Calcutta, facing the winter in ankle-deep mud and filth. More than 20,000 persons had also entered East Bengal from Assam, and others were still coming.

COST OF DEFENCE ' - ■' ' STATEMENT BY INDIAN . MINISTER (Rec. 10.0) NEW DELHI, February 28. The Indian Finance Minister, Matthai, told Parliament to-day that defence would take about half the Government’s expenditure in the 1950-51 financial year. Matthai said that defence expenditure was £126,428,000 sterling of the Budget’s total estimated £253,928,571 sterling. If India’s peace was threatened, the Government would not hesitate to raise more money fop defence.

Matthai forecast a Budget surplus of £7,215,000 sterling. There would not be increases in direct taxation, and there would be decreases in income taxes.