Pakistan's Mistake The decision of Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, the
Prime Minister of Pakistan, not to attend the Commonwealth conference in London, while intelligible, is thoroughly unwise. Les absents ont toujours tort, and to leave the field in London to the Prime Minister of India would be impolitic in the extreme, even if Mr. Nehru were a less forceful personality than he is. The Kashmir question may not be discussed formally at the conference, but it will and should be discussed informally as a matter of urgency, and with the advantage that both Mr. Menzies and Mr. Holland have seen the Indian and the Pakistan Prime Ministers on their way to London. Does Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan really think it in the interests of his country to let its case go by default in this way ? The resolve to do that is the more to be regretted in that the Pakistan case is a distinctly strong one. There have no doubt been faults on both sides, but there is no gainsaying the fact that India much more than Pakistan has been responsible for frustrating the persistent efforts of the United Nations Security Council to secure a settlement of the Kashmir problem either by mediation or by arbitration ; the final report of the United Nations mediator, Sir Owen Dixon, made that perfectly clear so far as the discharge of his own mission was con- cerned, and the position was the same at earlier stages of the pro- ceedings. There has been too little appreciation in this country of the strength of the Pakistan case, and indications of a sympathetic understanding of it have been too sparing. But Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, in absenting himself from the Commonwealth conference, has chosen the most effective way to forfeit sympathy. A great pity.
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