Evening star., 1954-10-19
Mr.. Nehru in Peiping

Prime Minister Nehru's trip to Peiping
|, his own business. He has every right to
be there, Of course, as long as the Commu-
nists are willing to play host to him. After
all, he represents free and sovereign ma
ton. and no Westerner can properly chal-
lenge his decision to go on this junket in
exchange for the recent visit made to India
by Premier Chou En-lai of Red China.
With that said, however, outsiders in
the free world cannot be blamed If they
take a rather jaundiced view of Mr.. Nehru'S
journey behind the Bamboo Curtain. This
is so, among other reasons, because OF the
way he has lent himSelf-en route-to Red
propaganda. At any rate, Westerners must
certainly be pardoned If they have read
with diSpleasure about how he has been
escorted in Hanoi by an honor guard"
made up of Communist veterans Of the
battle of Diem Bien Phu and about how he
has dined with Ho Chi Minh-the man who
has been doing an excellent enslaving job
in Indo- China for the Peiping- Moscow axis.
Similarly-and this is particularly true
of Americans in view of all the aid India
has received from our country-Westerners
must be excused If they have been some-
what offended, or less than reassured, by
leaving New Delhi for Peiping. If these re-
marks have been accurately reported, his
view is that his trip to Red China may well
go down in history as perhaps the most I'M
portant international event of the decade
and that the new Southeast Asia security
alliance against the threat of Communist
aggreSsion-an alliance which he has con-
demned ever since the United States first
hA lnl
paratively trivial" thing at best, and at
worst as project that will increase war
breeding tensions in the Far East.
All this, coupled with some other things
that Mr.. Nehru has said and done in recent
years, justifles a certain feeling of misgiv-
ing about the nature and possible effects
of his trip to Peiping. True, besides preach
ing the doctrine of asia for the ASianS,"
he has long profesSed to be kind of tight
rope walker or fence-sitter unwaveringly
intent upon having India follow policy Of
strict neutrality between the Sino-Soviet
empire on one hand and the United States
and the West as whole on the other. But
unfortunately, especially since the outbreak
of the Korean war in 1850, he has several
times given the impression of leaning mark
edly toward the Communists and being
rather too righteous and free wheeling
not to mention inaccurate and confused
in his criticism Of our country and its
allies.
Accordingly, considered against such a
background, Mr.. Nehru's current meeting
with Chou and Generalissimo Mao Tze-tung
is hardly the sort of thing that tends to re-
assure. From the standpoint of population,
India and Red China are the two biggest
countries in the world, and although the
Peiping get-together probably will fall very
far short of being the most important event
of the decade, it can have significant and
possibly quite adverse results for the West
particularly If Mr.. Nehru is in a mood to
promote peaceful co-existence" at almost
any price, on the basis of mere propaganda
promises from the Communists.
To say this may be to do an injustice
to Mr.. Nehru, and so, in fairness to him,
judgment should be withheld on his Peipihg
visit until it is over and its meaning has
become reasonably clear. Meanwhile,
though, because of the trend of his "neu-
tralism" in the past few years, Americans
and Westerners in general have reason to
be dubious, If not anxious, about his wisdom
and realism in travelling such distance to
listen to the Establishments Of Mao and
Chou. ..A.,