Mr Nehru's Adventure
TRE verdict on the Indian action in Goa must be that, although there is a good deal to be said against Portugal, there is nothing whatever to be said in favour of India. True, the Portuguese outposts on the Indian continent are, and have !ono been, an anomaly and an offence to many Indians. True, also, Portugal is a ruthless and un- savoury Fascist-style dictatorship, and the brutality and viciousness of her colonial policy in particular stands condemned before the whole world. True, probably (but by no means cer- tainly), most of the Goons will welcome their un- shackling, however it may have been brought about.
But the fact remains that India—the India of Mr. Nehru —has committed an act of aggression, bolstering it with all the usual phrases and ex- cuses that aggressors have used in recent decades. This will have two effects. First, it will make the international situation more tense, more confused, more dark. Any increase in the global total of fighting and its concomitant hatreds is dangerous, even if it is not directly between East and West (and even the Indian Government should realise what encouragement this action must have given to the Chinese on their northern borders), and this remains true however quickly the operation is brought to an end.
Secondly, and more important, the action cuts through Mr. Nehru's olive-branch, leaving him out on the limb. His position as. the Great Peace- maker has often- seemed equivoCal, not only in such blemishes on his own record as the Indian actions in kashmir. but. more generally because he has too often seemed to lean over further in excusing the East than in extending friendship, and understanding to the West. (His behaviour at the time of the Hungarian Revolution was especially deplorable.) Still, there was no doubt that he was the best neutral we had; his own stature, together with the growing power and sig- nificance of India. did play an important part in keeping down international tensions and in pro- viding initiati% es towards their lessening.
Now, that influence may have been destroyed. Whatever the ultimate outcome of his Goan ad- venture. \Ir. Nehru can never again clean himself of the stain of the aggressor. It may be that. he will get a few plaudits from some of the more short- sighted African nationalists, rejoicing at this example of an attack on colonialism but this is
easy to exaggerate, for the interest of Africans in the affairs of the Indian sub-continent is likely to be small, quite apart from the effect of the bad relations that exist in many parts of Africa be- tween Africans and Indian settlers. But whatever the response from ex-subject peoples, more sig- nificant must be the congratulations Mr. Nehru received, a few hours after launching the operation, from the arch-aggressor, the Soviet Union. Mr. Nehru will realise all too soon how tragically big a price he has paid for that hollow and tainted praise.
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