Evening star., 1949-09-01
Our PIeu Over Kushmir

Disclosure that President Truman has
made strong representations to India and
Pakistan to settle their bitter dispute over
Kashmir should be considered in the light
of the overall Asiatic situation The plea
takes the form of letters from the White
House addressed respectively to Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India and to
Prime Minister Liaqat Ali OF Pakistan. 1t
Is understood that the President warningly
points out that continuance of this dispute
involves grave threat to peace in all OF
Southeast Asia" and stresses the hope that
It can be settled at the earliest possible
moment.
Kashmir has proved to be the chief
stumbling-block to amicable relations be-
tween the two Dominions into which the
former entity of British India was divided
at the passing of British rule. The new
frontiers, drawn along religious lines, were
delimited without too much friction for
most of the sub-continent, which had been
under direct British jurisdiction. But in
terspersed within the bulk of British India
lay a mosaic of states, great and small,
ruled by native princes whose primary
allegiance was to the British Crown. Obvi-
ously, such enclaves became untenable
with the end of direct British rule. In
most cases, the native states were absorbed
logically into the Dominion within which
they lay, the more so as the native rulers
and their subjects were usually of the same
faith. The one notable exception has been
Kashmir.
The reasons for this are not far to seek.
To begin with, Kashmir is land where
rulers and ruled are of opposing religions.
The hereditary sovereign, entitled Maha-
raja, is Hindu, as is most OF the ruling
class, whereas the bulk of the people are
Moslems. Furthermore, Kashmir is the
largest of the native states and Is situated
at the highly strategic northwest tip OF
the Indian sub-continent, adjoining both
Dominions. It is easy to see, therefore,
what a valuable addition Kashmir would
be to either.
At the time of the separation of India
and Pakistan, troubleS broke out in Kash-
mir and the Maharaja appealed to the
Government of India for aid against local
Moslem malcontents, coupling this plea
with request for admission to the Domin-
ion of India. This aroused Pakistan, which
gave covert aid to the local Moslens in
their fight against the Maharaja's loyal
forces and Indian troops sent in to aid
them The situation was further compli-
Gated by the entry of Moslem tribesmen
from the semi-independent borderland be-
tween Pakistan and Afghanistan. The
upshot was severe fighting, with the added
danger that this local conflict might
spread into general war between the two
Dominions.
To avert that major disaster, the issue
of Kashmir was laid before the United
Nations as threat to world peace. And
about year ago. a special U. N. Commis-
sion was appointed to arrange cease-ire
order and truce, as the preliminaries te
a u. .N.-supervised plebiscite enabling the
people of Kashmir to decide whether they
wanted to join India or Pakistan. In antic.
ipation of this eventuality, distinguished
American, Admiral Chester w. Ninitz, wa.
selected as "Plebiscite Administrator"
Unfortunately although both India ant
Pakistan had agreed in principle to al
these u. N. measures, their carrying out
has been blocked by bitter arguments be-
tween the two Dominion Governments .