Unwelcome Guest

When Red China's Premier Chou Enlai arrived in New Delhi last week, the greeting he received was in sharp contrast to the cordial atmosphere of his 1956 visit. Then happy shouts rose from tens of thousands of throats, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was ready with a friendly embrace. This time, there were no parades, and no bullock carts or camel caravans festooned with slogans of welcome: New Delhi's city officials had not even prepared the usual mass civic reception.

With the Chinese occupying 9,000 sq. mi. in Kashmir along the Himalaya frontier and claiming another 42,000 sq. mi., India was in no mood to be nice. For weeks the press had exhorted Nehru to stand firm against the visitor's threats or blandishments--apparently in the conviction that Nehru was a man who could be counted on to turn the other cheek if there was any turning room. "China does not come here as a friend. She comes as an aggressor," growled the Indian Express.

To the surprise of many, Nehru was nearly as blunt as they could wish. "Events have taken place which have put a great strain on this bond of friendship," he told Chou at the airport. "Our relations have been imperiled in the present and for the future." Nehru sat gingerly apart from his guest on the back seat of the Cadillac as they sped into town by a back route lined with troops and police who far outnumbered the scattered spectators.

Chou was fresh from four days in Rangoon, where he and his Burmese hosts gaily celebrated the settlement of Burma's own border dispute with China, and he soon would be stopping off in Nepal, where he had put in a claim for all of Mount Everest. Now. Chou assured Nehru, he was ready to "settle questions" with India. But in more than 14 hours of tough face-to-face discussions in Nehru's drawing room, the two got nowhere.

What Chou would like is a border compromise--one that would leave the Chinese in possession of vital fringe areas where they have already built roads and airfields. But this would mean abject surrender by the Indians of regions which they have always considered their own. Whatever the outcome, India was preparing for trouble, in case that was what China wanted. For weeks, Indian troops and workers have been building new military outposts and improving supply roads that lead to the troubled frontier.

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