Seventy-Third Year EDrrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241 TrUtb Will Prevail"' Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: GAIL EVANS THE BORDER DISPUTE: Approach Marks Turning Point for india 4 ,Al India-China Ceasef ire: Shooting Isn't Over PLAYING THEIR OLD GAME of "fight, talk; fight,. talk," the Communist Chinese have announced that they have offered to cease fire by midnight tonight and withdraw, by Decem- ber 1, 122 miles behind the India-China border of Nov. 7, 1959-the McMahon Line. It seems strange that the Chinese in the midst of a seemingly unstoppable military of- fensive would offer to halt and give up their hard won and undoubtedly costly gains. How- ever, a number of forces are at work which have apparently squelched Chinese imperial ambitions. The Chinese could be halting for political advantage. One of Mao-Tze Tung's basic politi- cal axioms is fight, then negotiate while se- cretly building forces. After this diversionary maneuver has succeeded or played out, fight again. Then talk, then fight until the enemy is worn out or so frustrated that it will agree to your conditions. FITH THE ONSET of winter, the cease fire offer comes at an opportune time. The Chinese have already demonstrated their mili- tary prowess. However, the war is being fought over long supply lines in the mountainous Him- alayas. A further advance depending on such tenuous supply lines may prove disastrous. The Indians could regain their lost territory, chop- ping up the Chinese army in the process. The Chinese have also succeeded in bringing several long range political advantages out of the war. The most important is the disruption of India's already strained peace-time economy and its turning into a war economy. Despite China's own poverty, its economy is better equipped to fight a war than India's. India's mounting and diverse population cannot' stand the long-term strains of war. The Chi- rese, on the other hand, are used to semi- starvation and regimentation; "glorious victory" will psychologically ease their lot. THE CHINESE have succeeded in undermin- ing the Nehru regime. Although the Indian people have rallied around their Prime Minister, the great reverses cannot help but erode confi- dence in him. As the immediate crisis lessens, political instability will follow. The Chinese have forced the Indians into a very difficult foreign policy position. Needing armaments, the Indians have aligned themselves with the West while trying to maintain some semblance of neutralism. This works for the} Chinese advantage, exemplified by India's con- tinued insistence that China be seated at the United Nations. The continued desire to re- main neutral will also make India's relations with the West difficult, but the need for West- ern arms and support will hurt India's status with other neutrals. The Chinese can only bene- fit from this bind. HOWEVER, there are a number of negative factors that may have halted the Chinese drive. World opinion has almost unanimously condemned the invasion; but, more important- ly, the Soviets are opposed and have been put in an embarrassing position by the Chinese at- tack. This aggression demolished the Soviet policy of wooing India and neutralizing her. Relations between New Delhi and Moscow cannot help but be cool after the Russians vacillated in sup- plying planes for India's defense. The Russians were caught between their Chinese allies and their Indian friends. The Russians may also have used their lever over the Chinese to halt the fighting. China's undeveloped economy cannot support itself or a war machine without outside-Russian-as- sistance. Soviet displeasure at the Himalayan adventure is enough to make the Chinese think twice before starting. The Russians may have applied more tangible threats to end the con- flict. THUS THE CURRENT PHASE of the India- China war ends. It has been a rude night- mare and awakening for India, and an inter- iational prestige calamity for China. The In- dians have been jolted out of their naive neu- tralism, probably for good. Slowly, but surely the Communists have forced India solidly into the Western camp. For the world this is an unfortunate loss, India has often been a lost voice of sanity in the face of hysteric crises. She has led the truggle for disarmament and has always been willing to aid the United Nations. Now, under pressure from the Chinese, the Indians will have to abandon both causes. The United Nations will suffer a grievous setback when the Indians will be forced to remove their troops from the Congo and Middle East. The Chinese have lost world prestige, but this is of little concern to them. The internal prestige gained by successful warfare is more important to Communist leaders. Even with a cease fire, the India-China war. is not over. Neither side is satisfied with the current situation and the struggle will continue on some military level for some time to come. It is unfortunate that the Chinese gave up peaceful means for settling the border dispute, but not surprising. The Indians have been rudely shown Communism's true colors. -PHILIP SUTIN Reply (EDITOR'S NOTE: Former Daily City Editor Philip Sherman is teach- ing English at Madras Christian Col- lege in India this year. This article was written about a week ago but includes important background ma- terial for more recent developments in the Indian situation.) By PHILIP SHERMAN Daily Guest Writer MADRAS-A month ago it look- ed like just another ugly turn in the drawn out Sino-Indian bickering over common frontiers. With winter approaching, the Chinese followed their usual cus- tom and stepped up military ac- tion. Then, as he got on a plane for Ceylon, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru casually averred his troops had been ordered to drive the Chinese out. A week later, the Reds replied with a major offensive, including attacks in the relatively quiet but criti- cal Northeast Frontier Agency. Then the India government hit the alarm bell. The reverberations could make October, 1962, a watershed mo- ment in India's long history. It is the month when the modern In- dian nation went to war. IN CLOSE ORDER: Nehru made a war broadcast to the nation, which, if lacking in specifics, clearly summoned all In- dians to the defense of the vio- lated motherland. Sounding tired, disillusioned and perhaps quietly bitter as he spoke first in English then in Hindi, Nehru admitted significantly: "We are living in an artificial atmosphere of our own creation and we have been shaken out of it." He was an- ticipating a major policy shift. A concerted government pro- paganda campaign was thus begun which has roused the nation as nothing since the early days of Independence and Partition. The continuing theme: it is not a border incident, but a full scale invasion-a wartime response is needed. With even a confused Communist party lining up behind the government, a major com- mittee on "national integration," one of India's most pressing prob- lems, suspended its deliberations as unnecessary. All efforts were made to strengthen India's out-manned and out-gunned border forces. Politicians and economists agreed the Third Five Year Plan would have to be retailored in khaki cloth. Institutional changes were made to facilitate this and to spur output. * * * PRESIDENT S. Radakhrishnan, who had been insisting all along that the Chinese were a serious menace, gave Nehru war-time authority by declaring a national emergency. This gave the govern- ment broad though temporary spe- cial powers. Already, special plans have been made in northern bor- der regions to train men with rifles and special local defense councils established. All students will be given some military train- ing. Nehru sent out feelers both East and West. Although apparently softening its stand now, at that moment the Soviet Union found it had to support China. The West, glad at Panditji's change of heart, was only too happy to help on his terms. / American and British arms be- gan rapidly to arrive in India, to be paid for later on easy terms. More are coming. It is a mild form of aid only and nothing more. Nehru bowed to immense pres- sure by demoting Defense Minis- ter V. K. Khrishna Menon, sup- posed architect of the border pol- icy. Later Menon completely re- signed. The change made every- one west of Suez very happy and apparently most Indians too. The Chinese underlined all these points by continuing their drive into NEFA, capturing the impor- tant town of Towang and threat- ening to go all the way down to the Assam Plain. But stiffening Indian resistence, the mountain winter and lengthening lines of communication were apparently slowing the Chinese down, and relative quiet eventually fell over the front. WHAT HAPPENED? "The artificial atmosphere of our own creation," India's post- Independence foreign policy, has virtually collapsed. Building on a similar but definitely different foundation, the government is now trying to erect a new and sounder structure. The major casualty so far is the weakest beam in the old policy, trust and friendship for China. India has many reasons for con- ciliating China and admittedly some were quite sound. Though developing India was and is markedly weaker than big- ger China. Her army is at best one quarter as large and hardly as well equipped. The industrial base is smaller and cannot be so easily diverted to war produc- tion. The military action that In- dia had hoped to prevent would have been exceptionally costly in terms of national development. The price was too high so it was to be avoided. Nehru said there seemed to be no possibility any other nation would be interested in invading India, as he now says China is doing. Invasion simply wouldn't be profitable, he thought. And there was an unspoken feeling and hope that China might go away if not unduly provoked. Finally, in the interests of peace and therefore internal develop- ment, India wanted to keep the Cold War far away, hence was willing to talk. * s s IN ALL THIS hope and solid analysis mixed, and India left her northern frontier weak even This has left, in essence, only the West, and it is there India has had to turn. She's turning cautiously, and all the arms ar- riving now presumably will be paid for some day or returned. But Western speed and easy financing are in fact a form of aid. The longer the action, the more India will have to rely on Western aid, and ties will grow. More arms shipments are in the cards, and India has requested aid for pro- duction. Training cadres may be provided. There should be less difficulty than usual In Congress next session about increasing eco- nomic aid, little different than ' p. ,F I +k y' d f tt - y".COMIt sV^K t 1 R &oot ,5 "tV1 ! - to more prosaic ends. Increased popular enthusiasm for community progress programs and agricultural extension programs, for instance, would enable India to realize a great part of a potential and ab- solutely essential fivefold increase in food production. It's been lack- ing so far. Since the days of the Freedom Movement, Indian unity has sag- ged. Hopefully, the negative anti- Chinese feelings can be trans- muted into a more positive alle- giance to a greater India, rather than to a particular language- cultural-geographical region. Hope- fully, the collective national breast A LOOK at the map indicates China could be aiming at a good deal more. The most limited in- terpretation is that she will use her NEFA conquests as a gambit to gain title to Ladakh, whose resources and roads she values. In- dia has always conceded" the Chi- nese case in Ladakh may be par- tially valid, and this is theopen- ing wedge. Or the Chinese may want to keep Ladakh and also stay put in NEFA. They would remain a con- tinuous and diverting threat, even if they did nothing else. They could drive further, and after a relatively short downhill march reach Pakistan and cut off the Indian state of Assam and some special territories. China may want Assam's oil, though its hard to se how she'd get it home. Looking eastward, such a con- quest could open the gate to northern Burma, and Burma is one of the world's leading rice exporters, a heaven to hungary China. The jungle terrain is tough, but is could conceivably be tamed. Prodigal of manpower, the Chinese may be the ones to do it. LOOKING EASTWARD, China could use her NEFA conquests as a political and military spring- board into Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal. Indian administers Bhutan an Sikkim's military affairs, and both countries have pledged al- legiance, but a strong Chinese force could change everything. King Mahendra of Nepal has long been making anti-Indian statements and the Chinese are building a road south to Kath- mandu. The Chinese could replace the Indian pre-eminence in Nepal. And the stark fact is that south- western Nepal is a scant 250 miles from New Delhi. Talk of a full- scale invasion of India is indeed alarmist at this point, but a Chinese communications network in Nepal would stretch all the way over the mountain barrier to the edge of the Gangeatic Plain, industrial and emotional heart- land of India. NEHRU'S GOVERNMENT ob viously thinks the threat is serious. It's taking the Munich lesson that tons of prevention are worth meg- atons of cure. Another.reason for the strong reaction: it takes quite a shock to galvanize somnolent India and a combination of military reverses and slowing economic develop- ment call for massive action i- mediately. Politically speaking, Nehru has been under heavy pres- sure to do something like this, and now he has acted. Related to this is the some- what peripheral matter of Mr. Menon, whose numerous oppon- ents took advantage of the crisis to force him out, probably forever. They argued the wrong policies were his, that he was responsible for the troops being very poorly equipped (a fact more aparent in Western reports than Indian ones) and that his sarcastic presence was a disunifying force. Menon is an old and tried friend of Nehru, one of the few intellectual and personal compan- ions left for the 73 year old Prime Minister. His departure is a per- sonal blow. * * * IN GERMANY or Great Britain, such errors would bring down the government. In India Nehru rules unchallenged. But now that the buffer Menon is gone, the politi- cal situation may assume a new complexion. Nehru isn't going to be forced out tomorrow. His power and popular support are too great and anyway the Congress leaders too are committed to his policies. \ But there will likely be a new set of political dynamics in India whose effects are shrouded in the future. But the most presently critical developments are India's new ap- preciation of the world and, the more important, new national spirit. Of course, what happens along these lines depends" on India's success ASKED FOR his opinion of the recent tele- vision "political obituary" for Richard Nixon, John Birch Society head Robert Welch came' up with the brilliant reply that his henchmen will soon mail out "hundreds of thousands of postcards" demanding that the United States get out of the United Nations. Even though the most controversial par- ticipant on that show, ex-convict Alger Hiss, was a State Department aide when the UN was organized way back in 1945, and even though the John Birch Society has been after our withdrawal from that body for ages. Welch's statement so conflicts with the ques- tion put to him in the first place that I am moved to think that if he had merely been asked the time of day, he would have responded no differently. -STEVEN HALLER Credit Hours Too Inflexible THE PRESENT SYSTEM of assigning credit hours to courses is too inflexible for the University. Although the credit hour arrange- ment may work for the liberal arts and social sciences, it creates unevenness and restricts teaching in the physical sciences. Under the only available definition, the awarding of one credit hour implies one hour per week, spent in class and two hours of outside study with allowances for laboratories. In reality, however, the proportion of two hours of outside work to one hour of lecture or recitation does not always hold. The ma- terial of one course may be found entirely in the textbook, whereas in another course the material may not be sufficiently explained in any textbook. But the credit hour system requires that a professor have class a predetermined number of times. The result is that professors in some courses deliver material and explanations that can be found in textbooks, wasting both the professor's and the students' time. Another disadvantage is that students come to depend on classroom instruction as the only source of their knowledge of the subject. ONE SOLUTION, which is in wide use, has students just skip classes they feel they can do without. But most scholarly fellows always attend classes, as a matter of habit. Also, faculty members consider it a personal affront to lecture to vacated seats, and often take into account absences in making out the grade. At a time when the cost of education is ris- ing and the enrollment is increasing, the solution of cutting classes would lead undersired effect of dumping faculty down the gutter. So this alternative be avoided., to the talent should Another solution would be to remove the dependence of credit on the numbers of hours spent in class. Then, credit for a course would depend on a number of variable factors. For instance, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the credit for a course is deter- mined by the sum of the time spent in class, in lab, and in expected outside study. THIS TYPE of assigning credit is flexible enough to cover the full range of science and engineering courses. Classroom instruction could often be replaced by the less expensive textbook instruction. Finally, students would no longer depend on instructors to bottle-feed them their knowledge. One can only conclude that the present credit hour system is detrimental to the physical sciences. Since a more flexible ar- rangement of the MIT type could work for liberal arts courses also, the present credit hour system should be abolished in favor of it. -MICHAEL SATTINGER Short Subjects UNTIL SCHOLARS prove conclusively that they are a bad institution, the University will remain committed to using the lecture course as a main instrument for the presenta- tion and transmission of knowledge to under- classmen. In efforts to find extra lecture halls without pushing for state funds to build new class- as the Chinese were building the bases that undergird her present success. India downplayed the danger and lulled herself almost to sleep. Although the scale of the recent fighting was small-the Chinese are estimated to have but 50,000 troops on the border-India fin- ally realized this sort of thinking was incompatible with national security. After years of skirmish- ing and tolerant diplomatic ex- change she scuttled her China policy. It was high time. On a wider-scale, a two-fold diplomatic setback has meant that India had to move strongly be- cause supposed friends did not line up at her side. It's said the trigger for the emergency declaration was a pri- vate warning the Soviet Union would have to stand by China. After that, Pravda endorsed the unacceptable Chinese truce offer: talks after each side withdraws 12.5 miles from the line of effec- tive control. India had counted on Russia. But Mao disliked Soviet friend- ship and aid to his major Asian rival. Maintaining that the Com- munist bloc must stick together, he apparently forced Khrushchev's hand. Reported recent modifica- tions in the Soviet stand cannot conceal the initial attitude, and India knows it. Nehru now hopes the Soviets will remain neutral. It's all he can ask. (Basically, the high altitude war is a battle between Asia's giants for continental supremacy with the allegiance of half the world's population hanging in the balance. The question is simple: who will be the dominant power in Asia in a generation? India cannot afford to come out second best, and the war effort is geared to prevent such a disaster.) * * * AT THE SAME TIME, the so- called Afro-Asian bloc of rela- tively old "non-aligned nations" has failed to rally to India's side, whether or not this would in fact make any difference. Rather than coming out behind an aggrieved India, the bloc has concentrated on a peaceful settlement of dif- ferences. (The seettlement proposed by Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser is acceptable to India but not to China.) actual military assistance in a limited war situation. * * * INDIA ISN'T abandoning her non-alignment policy. It still serves legitimate national interests and psychological desires. And a big change would probably pro- voke Russia really to back the Chinese. India, in short, is not becoming a Western puppet. But the facts are the Weststood by India and India felt the Chi- nese whip. Her heightened sense of international reality cannot help but change the slant of her non-alignment. It will affect everybody, and it will also strengthen the hands of India's pro-Western politicians, of whom there are many. (The future may not be quite so simple however. It's speculated India will have to move into Tibet in order to safeguard her borders. But this would mean big war. Will the West support it? India cannot do it by herself. (Or would the West support air attacks on Chinese supply lines in Tibet? Nehru hinted this might be done when he said New Delhi might be bombed. It would be bombed in reprisal for use of the Indian Air Force, which is doing only transport duty right now. (And, If India gets powerful enough to push China around- which seems unlikely-what would she then do about Pakistan? Would the West let her settle outstanding differences by the sword?) ON THE HOME front, the gov- ernment has used the crisis to call out mass enthusiasm which must now survive over a long period. Recruiting depots are filled, and gallons of blood are being given. Women are giving their jewelry to the National Defense Fund, and even the poorest of India's poor are pathetically chipping in their meagre savings. An American professor at Ker- ala's Trivandrum University has changed the names of his labor- atory dishes from "China" to "In- dia." There is undeniable enthusiasm among the students, even if their demonstrations also represent a desire to skip a day's classes. At my college, students gave up a "hall day," the year's biggest event with expensive entertainment and fancy food. They'll give the money to- the df~nP funiil(T1hP ,vivf,,', beating now going on can be changed to a new and greater sense of purpose and progress. One Chinese motive may have been to drain India's resources and divert attention from impor- tant internal problems. But if In- dian national sentiment is really mobilized behind national ad- vance, India may thereby turn the development corner and show that the Chinese threw history's biggest boomerang. This would be immensely more important than any and all changes in foreign policy. What precisely is China up to? It's hard to say of course, but a prime objective is probably this attempt to set back fatally India development. Democratic India's failure to develop would mean a' real ideological triumph for China, whose Marxism would clearly be- come the "wave of the future." It would also mask China's own fail- ures and destract discontent at home. An India setback would weaken India's prestige and stabilizing in- fluence in Asia, and open the road for Communist subversion and ex- pansion. And it would be a shot in the arm for Mao's militancy, current cause celebra of his es- trangement with the apparently easier-going Kremlin. 'OLIVER!': Charming A daptation "OLIVER!" deserves its excla- mation point-plus ten more. Lionel Bart's musical could never have been if it were not for Dickens' "Oliver Twist." Even Rodgers and Hammerstein at their sugary sweetest would not dare to have an orphan sit on a coffin and sing the haunting "Where is Love?" But since such sentimen- tality is true to the flavor of the novel, no one laughs--in fact, quite a few wipe away a tear. And no modern playwright would dare conclude a play with the revelation that the orphan is really the long-lost grandson of the richest man in London and have the grandfather chase his grandson's kidnapper all over Lon- don Bridge ending with the crim- inal's fatal fall from the top of the stage to the "river." How- ev~r_ Tirkens, did4 if-andA it rma~r c However, regardless of how quaint the book is, how excellent the score, anyone who misses the original production now at De- troit's Fisher Theatre for a three- week stop-over on the way to Broadway will wonder what all the excitement was about-because the production is more memorable than the play. "Oliver!" features the first set that deserves star billing. It is a series of intertwining stairs and wooden platforms which revolve on two turntables creating un- believably weird effects. It is near- ly impossible to imagine a suc- cessful production of "Oliver!" without this set which helps to hide the play's episodic quality. Clive Revill turns Fagin into an ingratiating cross between t#he Hunchback of Notre Dame, Silas Man _and FI 1taff.