PORTUGUESE LAND IN INDIA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27410, 24 July 1954, Page 7

PORTUGUESE LAND IN INDIA

Request Made By Government

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LISBON. July 23. 1 A Portuguese Government com- i znunique issued early today said Portugal was asking India to allow Por- : tuguese troops from its settlement of Damab to go through Indian territory to expel “usurpers” from the Portu- < guese village ox Dadra on India’s west coast. The communique said a “band of mercenaries” had occupied the village. It also warned that the Portuguese Government- would repel any attempt at incursion by “volunteer bands” from India into the Portuguese settlement of Goa. One person was shot dead and four were injured when the campaign to ■merge French and Portuguese settlements with the rest of India flared up again today, the Press Trust of India death was at Mullodi. a village in the east coast French settlement of Pondicherry, where French and Indian police fired on a pro-merger procession. , „ The injured—three of them Portuguese at the Portuguese village of Dadra, on the west coast, which Nationalist volunteers “liberated” shortly after midnight. Dadra, part of the settlement of Damao, was the first piece of Portuguese territory to be occupied by Nationalists, who have said they intend to march on Goa, the largest Portuguese settlement, on August 15. Portugal’s three settlements m India —the third is Diu—are all on the west coast. With a total area of about Ipou , square miles, they have a population of about 650,000. Two of the four French settlements, Mahe and Yanam, have already been taken over by Nationalists, and. transfers of control of Pondicherry, the largest, and Karaikal. are considered inevitable soon. The Indian Government tonight denied that communications had been cut off in Damao and that Dadra was surrounded by Indian troops. A statement issued in New Delhi said: “In view of the progressive strengthening of the armed forces by the Portuguese in their _ c ® lo ?. ies . India, the Government of India has only taken the normal precaution of posting additional police along the India had sought a P® ac £? u \ Trent of the future of the settlements since 1950, but the Portuguese Government refused to face realities, the statement said.