Evening star., 1953-08-22
Mr.. Lodge VS.. India

I1cuEy OdDOb LOQg6, Jf., our Cnl6l delegate
to the United Nations. seems to be having a
hard time trying to dissuade the General As
sembly from inviting India to participate in
the forthcoming political conference on Korea.
Since the invitation must be approved by
two-thirds of the members, he probably will be
able to muster enough votes to block it. Even
so however, his efforts to that end do not ap-
pear to be reaping good propaganda harvest
for the United States.
This does not mean, of course, that the
American position is unSound Actually, as set
forth by Mr.. Lodge, there is a great deal to be
said for It, at least in principle. For it is based
primarily on the fact that one of the key
provisions of the Panmunjom truce agreement
strongly implies that the participants in the
political conference-which is supposed to be-
gin in October-should be made up only of those
countries, ION both Sides" that were active
belligerentS in the Korean war.
Under this Interpretation, as Mr.. Lodge
has explained, the Soviet Union-because of
having blessed and supported the aggression,
militarily, politically and otherwise-is amply
qualified to take part in the conference in direct
association with the North Korean and Chinese
Communists But he has made clear that the
United States believes that the participants on
"our side" should be chosen only from among
the Is countries that allied themselves under
the United Nations Command and engaged in
shooting action against the Reds. India, ac-
cording to him, is not eligible in that sense;
1t is not eligible because of having been rela-
lively neutral" during the war, with its con-
tribution limited to non-combat medical CO.
operation.
Further, although Mr.. Lodge has not as
yet mentioned them in public, at least two other
considerations seem to be involved In the Situa-
ton. One is that President Syngman Rhee of
the Republic of Korea is reported to be pre-
pared to boycott the projected conference if
Indian participation is agreed upon And the
other is that the United States, although it
has emphasized that it admires India as "a
leading democratic nation" has more than
little reason to feel that the Nehru govern
ment, if represented as conferee would tend
to be overly sympathetic to Red China in a
way not justified in terms of international law
and not reconcilable with American public
opinion or American concepts of how best to
safeguard peace and freedom in Asia
Nevertheless, although such points as these
are powerfully sensible, Britain, the Common
wealth nations, the Philippines and other
Western and pro-Western members of the
U. N apparently are convinced that India
should be a participant in the political con-
ference because of its truce promoting role, its
key position on the neutral" repatriation COM
mission and it's highly important and inf1u-
ential place in Asia. In addition, these powers
seem to feel, rather strongly, that the American
position would unrealiStically convert the con-
ference into a kind of superenlarged version of
the Panmunjom armiStice talks with sharp
division between "our side" and the enemys-a
setup that would, in their judgment, have less
chance of success than round table, type of
negotiations.
In the circumstances, even though Mr..
Lodge may be able to win sufficient support to
keep India out of the conference, the United
States seems to be in s-than-favorable
propaganda position, especially in relation to
Asia. AS the U. N. member that contributed by
far the most to the struggle against the aggreS-
sor in Korea, our country has a right to do
everything it can to make its views predominant
in this matter But the serious question is
whether it can do so without creating an inter
allied rift that could do major injury to itself
and all other parties concerned.