Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-04-05
Asian Hungary

If the situation in Tibet were not
tragic, the world could almost laugh at
the monumental mendacity Of Peiping's
claim that the Dalai Lama has been
forcibly carried off to India by kidnap-
ing rebel tribesmen. Actually, Of course,
as Prime Minister Nehru himself has
made clear, the young Buddhist god
king has fled Herewith the help Of
his savagely oppressed countrymen-in
a hairsbreadth escape from massive
effort by the Chinese Communists to get
their hands on him.
But the significance of this story
involves much more than the fact that
1t has exposed Peiping in clumsy and
palpable lie of colossal proportions. For
it also has had the effect, among other
things, of obliging Mr.. Nehru to take
a new look at his old policy Of trying
to see, speak and hear no evil of Red
China. In promptly granting asylum
to the Dalai Lama, he has made deli
cate but unacceptable decision, and If
the Mao Tze-tung regime chooses to be
nasty about 1t, relations between the
Indians and the Chinese Communists
are likely to undergo swift and poten-
TALLY dangerous deterioration.
In any event. since the cooking
Of theocratic Tibet is regarded by his
people as their only true spiritual and
temporal ruler, his presence in an In
dian sanctuary will tend to inspire them
and keep alive their resistance-passive
or active-to Peiping. In turn, despite
the 1851 treaty under which they are
supposed to enjoy internal autonomy,
Red China, with its enormously superior
military power, may undertake an all
out drive to suppress them completely.
Needless to say, if such development
takes place, the delicacy of Mr.. Nehru's
now-strained "neutralist" position will
grow even more acute, and he and his
government will have to reckon with
the existence of large and aggressive
Chinese Communist forces breathing
holly down on India from "the roof OF
the world" Further, considering the
Soviet Unions standing ambitions
In that region of Asia (including
Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Krem-
lin itself will have reason to take dim
and hostile view of any broadening OF
the Mao regimes current armed OPP
erationS.
AS for the TibetanS themselves,
their plight is comparable to that SUI
fered by the Hungarians in the 1856
revolt against the Kremlin. Although
they have made heroic bid for at least
a little bit of independence, they do
not have the arms to hold out for long
against Peiping's military might if Pei
ping is determined to crush them al
together. Nor can they hope for any
real physical help from the outside
world. Instead, even If their cooking
appeals to the United Nations or to in
dividual powers for such help, they can
expect only expressions of sympathy
and pledges of moral support.
Nevertheless the tragedy in Tibet,
the "ASian Hungary" pricks the con-
science of mankind, and in the long
run it may add up to great defeat for
the Chinese Communists At any rate,
the evil of the thing, besides outraging
the world in general, has stirred up
storm of bitter criticism in India, In
donesia and all other "neutralist" lands
as well. Peiping thus may find, one day,
that it has paid very high price indeed
for this latest of its brutal aggreSsions.