Delhi and Karachi .
The trade agreement betWeen India. and Pakistan is of the best omen both in itself and in the bearing it may be hoped it will have on the solution of other and even more intractable problems. • Economic need has triumphed over political antago- nisms. The trade war that has continued for seventeen months has been disastrous for two countries which till 1947 had formed a single commercial area. India has been cut off, in particular, from the jute indispensable to her factories, Pakistan from the coal indispensable to her Transport, India, moreover, urgently needs foodstuffs which Pakistan can, and now will, export to her. Part of the trouble has been psychological, part due to Pakistan's refusal to devalue her rupee and India's refusal to trade with her after India's own devaluation. Here it is India, which to her credit, has given way, recognising the premium of the Pakistani over the Indian rupee.. In addition the flow of trade is further stimulated by the large extension of the list of commodities whose import and export now come under open licence. Valu- able as the agreement is in its commercial aspect, and great as Is the credit due to the negotiators on either side. there is every ground for hoping that its effect will be to create a new atmos- phere in New Delhi and Karachi. The Kashmir dispute is at this moment before the Security Council. Whatever the fate of the proposals put forward, they will at any rate have a better hope of success than before the trade agreement was signed last Sunday.
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