Delhi. Oct 24
As Pakistan and India continued to teeter on the brink of war today, Mrs Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister. left Delhi on the first leg of a three week visit to Belgium, Austria, France, Britain, the United States and West Germany.

Although it appears that Mrs Gandhi has taken a calculated risk by leaving the country while the subcontinent is in the grip of war hysteria, it is believed that she has left the Indian Army with clear-cut contingency orders should hostilities break, out during her absence. At the same time the Foreign Ministry has drawn up an elaborate plan for the Prime Minister’s immediate return to Delhi in the event of an armed conflict.

To judge by her farewell broadcast last night, it is obvious that Mrs Gandhi has placed great importance on her visit to the West by embarking upon a prolonged tour in spite of the popular belief that her presence is required here in the atmosphere of impending conflict. “It seemed important in the present situation to meet leaders of other countries for an exchange of views and to put to them the realities of our situation”, Mrs Gandhi explained.

Mrs Gandhi will attempt to achieve two principal objectives when she meets western leaders. From India’s point of view, talks with Mr Heath and Mr Nixon will quite obviously centre round the present crisis on the subcontinent.

Mrs Gandhi will attempt to persuade her hosts that the crisis is not essentially an Indo-Pakistan dispute but basically a domestic conflict between the two regions of East and West Pakistan. At the same time she will argue that, while the crisis must be resolved by the Bengalis and West Pakistanis, in another sense it is no longer an internal affair of Pakistan’s because the arrival of nine million refugees in eastern India has imposed a great strain on India's economy.

While Mrs Gandhi's case will be received sympathetically in the West many of her advisers are doubtful if she will achieve her second objective explaining away the recent Indo-Soviet treaty in the context of India's policy of non-alignment.

Mrs Gandhi is expected to claim that India, threatened by both Pakistan and China, had no option but to turn to her principal ally and enter into what amounts to a formal military pact with the Soviet Union.

While many Western diplomats had initially believed that the Indo-Soviet treaty had been ratified essentially to deter Pakistan from embarking upon a preemptive strike, it now transpires that the Bengal crisis was used as an opportune moment to formalize India's marked drift towards the Soviet camp in recent years.

In the first place, the Indian Government has admitted that the treaty was first mooted as long ago as 1969 and, secondly, it is reliably learnt that the treaty was already prepared in a draft form before India held her mid-term elections in February this year.

Our Brussels Correspondent writes: Mrs Gandhi arrived in Brussels today to begin her European tour. She will have talks with Mr Gaston Eyskens.

Karachi: Indian artillery today fired nearly 2,000 shells into 12 East Pakistan border villages, killing 53 people, Pakistan radio reported. It added that Pakistani troops repulsed two big attacks by “Indian agents” in the Comilla district.

Delhi: Four people were killed when Pakistani troops fired mortars from East Bengal on to the Indian town of Agartala today, the Press Trust of India reported.— Agence France Presse
Obsession with war, page 12