Words and Deeds
Mr. Nehru is a sufficiently informed student of international affairs to know that the statement of peaceful intentions is no substitute for peaceful actions. " There is no country and no Government in the world," he says, " which abhors the idea of war so much as India." This may perhaps be so, but it is not in itself enough to counteract his admission that Indian troops have been moved to the Pakistani frontier. He accuses Pakistan of provocative actions and bellicose propaganda ; and much that is impatient and reckless has appeared recently in the Pakistani Press. But India's record is no better, and, if the tragedy of an outbreak between India and Pakistan did ever take place, it is on their long-term records, and not on the responsibility for the final frontier incident that touched off the explosion, that the two nations would be judged. And from this long-term point of view there is no getting away from the fact that it has always been Pakistan which has been ready to co-operate with the United Nations over the settlement of the Kashmir dispute, and always India which has created difficulties. Pakistan is still ready to abide by the Security Council's latest ruling: India is not. More- over, while no responsible Pakistani believes in a Moslem crusade to reconquer India, there are many responsible Indians, Mr. Nehru among them, who are known to regard the breakaway of Pakistan from India as the greatest misfortune their country has suffered in modern times. It is not surprising that against this background the leaders of Pakistan should have a difficult time restraining their more eager followers. Nothing that Mr. Nehru has said or done recently has made their task any easier or given any hope that the United Nations representative, Dr. Graham, will have any success in his task of bringing the Kashmir dispute a stage nearer settlement.
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