"Traditional Friendship"

From the moment he boarded the Air India Constellation at Geneva, Chou En-lai set out to charm the Indians. He smiled graciously at the air hostess and murmured "I am grateful" at the slightest mark of attention. He ostentatiously relished the galley's chicken curry and passed around autographs and packets of Chinese cigarettes. Just before the plane touched down at New Delhi's Palam airport, Chou handed the crew a written certificate: "Skillful pilotship and wonderful service. All this is worthy of being learned by Chinese airlines. I am grateful to the Indian government for sending this special plane to bring me to India . . ."

Jawaharlal Nehru and his Indians seemed just as anxious to please. Nehru had run 2,500 friends of Red China out to the airport in 50 chartered buses so they could shower Chou with rose petals and cry out "Chin Hind bhai bhai" (Chinese and Indians are brothers, brothers) as the black-garbed Communist walked down the ramp. Nehru had Chou garlanded with flowers, led him around a guard of honor.

And the Indian press, taking its line from Nehru as usual, was unbounded in its glee.

"Historic significance!" cried the National Herald. "Momentous!" echoed the Hindustan Standard. "There may be a new chapter opening in Asian relations." Destiny Beckons. Chou drove first to the Jumna River, where he laid a big wreath upon Mahatma Gandhi's cremation ground. He paid his formal respects to President Prasad (whose office is decorated with autographed pictures of Eisenhower and Nixon). Then Chou got down to serious business with Nehru in a conference that many Asians equated with the Churchill-Eisenhower parley in Washington.

For the next two days Nehru and Chou talked in secret, often with only one interpreter present (Nehru spoke English.

Chou spoke Chinese), and the two men got along fine. Rumors spread persistently through New Delhi that Nehru and Chou were drafting a new "peace-for-Asia" plan, based upon a series of nonaggression pacts between Red China and Southeast Asian nations such as Burma and Indonesia. At a great state banquet Nehru and Chou spoke happily of their "traditional friendship." Said Chou: "The age when outside forces could decide at will the fate of Asia has gone forever." Said Nehru: "Destiny beckons ... I hope our two countries will stand for peace ... as they have done through the past 2,000 years of human history."

The Indian Case. Nehru often says that the destiny of Asia must depend upon the friendship of India and Red China. He attaches tremendous significance to his belief that India and Red China share common problems--poverty, overpopulation and "white" imperialism --and must tend toward one another because of them. He never chooses publicly to mention their basic difference: India goes in for British-style parliamentary democracy, while Red China rules by terror and command. Only when Red China shows more than a passing interest in what Nehru considers to be Indian interests (e.g., Nepal, Burma) does Nehru react like the jealous India Firster he basically is. Last week Nehru was actively helping Red China get Viet Nam for Ho Chi Minh, but he was also concerned that the Communists might edge too close to India. So Nehru hoped for Chinese assurances that they would not support the Communists in neighboring Nepal and Burma; he also hoped to persuade Chou to keep the Red Viet Minh out of a "neutralized" Laos and Cambodia and seemed desperately eager to accept Communist promises.

The Chinese Victory. In this easy bargaining climate. Chou seemed to have got all he wanted for the price of a bland Communist smile. He pitched a glib appeal for the leadership of Asia on the familiar "Asia for the Asians" theme, and the Indians cheered him. Chou made no concessions to Nehru. He reassured those who worry about Communist infiltration by declaring that "revolutions cannot be exported." Perhaps Chou's greatest triumph was the size of India's welcome itself--the biggest accorded a foreigner since independence.

Early this week Chou boarded another Indian plane for Burma, where a second rose-petal triumph awaited him beside the pagodas of Rangoon.

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