THE RAPE OF GOA - CATHOLIC HERALD

22nd December 1961 : UNO denounced Portugal for repressing revolt on her own territory. If it fails to deal adequately with Nehru for the rape of Portuguese Goa, it will prove to have been the biggest confidence trick ever bunched on political history, On Nehru's principle, France should forthwith march on Monaco, Germany on Luxembourg, and Spain should annex Gibraltar. His treatment of Kashmir and Hyderabad should have been warning enough. The disruption wrought by Indians in the Congo, and the recent meeting on Indian soil of Portuguese malcontents reveal the real depths of the Goanese issue. Diverting attention from Chinese depredations on the Indian border account for only part of the story. Nehru, the "positive neutralist". has a stake in the leadership of the Afro-Asian polity. He must champion nationalist causes. He must help those whose attack on Portuguese Africa is a major contribution to prising the white man out of Africa and letting in leftist subversion. Angola was a convenient spot to drive the wedge in. Now Portugal is attacked on a second front. The next stage? Maybe the signal is about to be given for the Portuguese dissidents in Conakry to move on Portuguese Guinea, or for those in Tanganyika to move on Mozambique. Those who would hasten the end of colonial government sometimes overlook the greater evils they may be letting loose—the cruelty of African to African, and Asian to Asian; massacres of blacks by blacks in the Congo and Angola; refusal of natural rights in Ghana, Guinea and Ceylon. Then too, for those of us who have placed our faith in UNO, there must now be disillusion. No one has been more active in its name than Nehru, who now repudiates its conciliation Out of hand. And what can it do in the face of Sukarno's lust for West New Guinea? UNO'S glory has been its achievements on the social welfare and economic planes. Politically, it is neither a super-sovereign state nor a true concert of states. It is a battleground for its members' sectional interests. Members support its adventures without enthusiasm. There is no religio to fire its soldiers' blood. To turn UNO into a "world government" or some sort of sovereign body here and now would be to confuse internationalism with cosmopolitanism. Destroy all that is meant by "national" and you are left without ingredients for a truly inter-national entity. If, in defiance of the subsidiarity principle, you divest nations of all individual sovereignty, of their characters and traditions, of their power to contribute that something which each one alone has to offer, you are left with a disembodied metaphysical theory. What is true of the relation between person and state is true of that between state and concert of states. It is beyond dispute that notions of national sovereignty have erred on the side of exclusiveness and acquisitiveness. 11ut, subject to the sacrifices outlined in Mater et Magistra, it is the free dialogue between nations and local federations prepared to fight for their national rights and yet to yield justice and charity, one to the other, that should constitute UNO's success. then, has it failed politically so far? The answer may WI-grt in what we wrote just before Mission Sunday about the need for the Western apostle to stop talking to the Hindu or Muslim as though he were a pagan, and to build instead on the powerful elements of truth he possesses. What is true on the level of faith may be equally true in terms of national character and philosophy. There can be no true rapprochement of Euro-America and Afro-Asia until we really begin to understand each other, to show that we understand, and to feel that we are understood. This may sound trite. In fact. it is a process that has hardly begun. It is not enough for diplomats to do it. Whole nations must do it before anyone can be convinced of its genuineness, let alone he converted. If it is not too late, UNO is the natural context for amends to be made, for we can at least find common ground in joint Social welfare action. THIS is the second time this year that Britain has had to face the prospect of an open breach with a major Commonwealth member. South Africa's affairs were at least internal in a physical sense, though of grave ideological implications throughout the world. But India has stepped out of her boundaries to become an invader and aggressor. The Commonwealth cannot he saved by sweeping its scandals under the carpet ; and this time the carpet would have to be a pretty big one. This is the time for the truth. If the Commonwealth cannot keep its own house in order, what hope is there for the United Nations—unless it be strengthened by a formal political association between the Commonwealth and a united Europe. This would be the best setting in the world for the re-thinking to be done by East and West in regard to each other. - Catholic Herald