Word from Sir Senegal

The U.N. had another try at settling the dispute over Kashmir, which for more than three years has had India and Pakistan on the verge of war. The U.S. and Britain proposed that another U.N. mediator be appointed (to succeed Sir Owen Dixon, who failed last year). The new-mediator was to get both India and Pakistan to withdraw all their troops from Kashmir and arrange for the long-delayed plebiscite in which the people of Kashmir themselves are supposed to decide whether they want to be under Indian or Pakistani rule. The U.S. and Britain also suggested that a U.N. force should keep order in Kashmir during the plebiscite. If, at the end of three months, the new mediator should prove unable to work out a solution, both parties were to submit the case to arbitration by U.N.'s International Court of Justice.

Last week, the U.N. Security Council met to get its answer from India's Sir Benegal Rau, who likes to prescribe U.N. mediation in the quarrels of other people and condescendingly rebukes them if they fail to take his medicine. Said Sir Benegal: "My government is wholly unable to accept these proposals." He insisted that, during the proposed plebiscite, Indian troops must stay in Kashmir, and suggested that the U.N. ought to leave India and Pakistan to settle their own row.

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