The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 76

inffion OJIP torn ilnnnDlD axhuxbip '-DDdDWKT wDnMifi WiiQODg FACT Correspondent WHEN Sir Oliver Goonetilleke was faced with the problem zof Sigirya Rock during I the Queen's tour of Cey FACTS London News Bureau pOR India's 400 millions i the re-election of Jawah-arlal Nehru's Congress Party this week after 15 years in power was entirely lon his solution was typical. Some people thought a hike up this 400ft high scenic spot near Kandy would be too strenuous i for the Queen. predictable. Sixty-one-year-old Sir Oliver proved it wasn't by doing it himself. It was this meticulous.

"Do it yourself attitude that made him one his country's outstanding politicians and then its first native Governor-General. 'Rumours? buzz But this" week it appeared his outstanding career had ended. He resigned as Governor-General and now faces a interrogation over an unsuccessful attempt to oust the Cevlon' Government lata last month. Sir Oliver Goonetilleke on the steps of Sigirya Ropk. ton, William -Gopallawa, toward Ceylon's independ-the: Government's inquiry ence in 1948.

IT gf- can eo -ahead. THE next five-year term, however, is fraught with incertainty not only for Congress but for the entire country. Prime Minister Nehru at 72 is generally believed to have fought his last election battle. But after Nehru who? And, more importantly, after Nehru what? The latter, although a question for the future, will be largely conditioned by the answer to the first. Will not even hint at successor But of this there is no sign.

Stubbornly Nehryhas refused to even hint at his guccessor. "The choice will have to be left to my party," he says, although everyone knows ultimately it will be his word alone. Certainly few Indians are eagerly anticipating their next Prime Minister, bow-ever able he may be. The country has made great material progress and since the Punjab massacres there have been no major civil disturbances. Able to interpret mass mind At the same time there have been continual disruptive influences at work provincialism, regionism, easteism.

Nehru has not eradicated After a term as leader of the newly created Senate he became the first Prime Minister Nehru and his possible successor, Defence Minister Menon. But the question remains: Why should accusation be' levelled at Sir Oliver who has been one of Ceylon's most admired public figures? High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Returnine to Cevlon in 1951 he toot on the roles hor tne past lour weeks diplomatic circles have been buzzing with rumours that the world's only woman Prime Minister, Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike, had asked the Queen to dismiss him. These grew louder when the- Ceylon House of Representatives was told two weeks ago that Sir Oliver, had agreed to be investigated like an ordinary citizen. This could not happen as long be was Governor-General a post which supposedly put him above the hurly-burly of politics.

Now that he has been succeeded by Ceylon's Ambassador in Washing Unlike some of his con- of nolitician Colnmhn temporaries he completed Plan promoter, inter-his entire education in national fnnri rnivr Hin. Returning to India, he found himself caught up in the. great mass movement led by Gandhi. In those early days few people foresaw that he would one day take Gandhi's place and the personalities of the two men could not have contrasted more sharply. Yet within a decade this aristocratic Socialist, -this 'Asian, who became a Westerner, had been hailed by the great Mahatnia as "A jewel among men" and had been appointed his successor.

Why Nehru has never trained such a cadre to follow himself is something he alone knows. At 72, Nejhru still works a 17-hour day seven days a week, and during the recent election campaign he travelled np and down the country, nonstop, for almost two months. Indeed, it has been claimed that he ceated a record in electioneering in the democratic world. According to the official figures he covered in 31 days, 16,362 miles by air, 1,300 miles by road and 130 miles by rail. May be good for 10 more years His aides were exhausted, but Nehru finished almost as fresh as he had started.

Physically, then, he seems good for a least five more years perhaps even 10. But while his political dominance continues' unchallenged there are some people who believe it is intensifying the very risks of the future trouble Nehru says he is holding at bay. Not only can no signi-cant national figure grow in his shadow, but his prestige and popularity with the masses make the Congress invulnerable to opposition and prevent the growth of any effective opposition party. Ceylon, first at a church lomat, agricultural expert college and then at vand Royal tour organ- The big danger for India and the West would be if the Leftists, led by Defence Minister Krishna Menon, were to seize control. In Nehru's eyes Menon can do no wrong.

But to many observers he is Communist in all but name. The choice of Nehru's successor is vital to the West from another angle, too. In 1947 India chose to mobilise its people by methods of democracy; in 1949 China's rulers chose to solve its problems by the Communists methods of ruthless coercion. If China were to succeed and India to fail there is a very real danger that the uncommitted countries of Asia would follow China's lead. upiomoo university.

lser. From there he showed The reward for "the enthusiasm for accoun- good democrat a man tancy and worked his way born to lead" came in up from bank clerk to the 1934 when he was post of Auditor-General to appointed Governor-Gen the Cevlon Government eral. at the age of 39 in 1931 Twin rUJi'mtinn knew when he would next AU 11 th.c 09 66 appear round corner re surprising that bu and criticise their work 9weF who dedicated "thrmw with an expert, first-hand to his country, knowledge should now be accused of JJ. enculf Australia and the The British Government JE3 ttZZ iK was so imnressed that it to its awarded him the CM.G. ovcrnmem In 1942 as the shadow f-i Japan feU on Ceylon, from his twin de- Sir Ohver was made avil rhrkt.

defence and food commis- mnA uu rnnnrv sioner. -i-JL, Thrice knighted He. has served on dio Iraki h. AlA hi. MM "6uvm America's growing military support of the weak jungle nation as it is of Communist China's role in the complex politics of the Malayan This isthe result of the crack in the Moscow-Peking axis, and at stake, here is the allegiance of North Vietnam to either Khrushchev or Mao Tse-tung.

It is against this blurred background that Britain, as co-chairman (with the Soviet Union) of the 1954 Gevena conference, and member of SEATO, believed to have expressed its concern to Washington that the gnerCIa war in South Vietnam may ex- plode into a general con- i these ills but he. has greatly weakened them by the force of his own personality. During these years Nehru's main political strength has been his ability to interpret the mass mind the intuitive sense of what is politically possible at a given moment in the emotional climate of India. How and where he acquired this is one of the mysteries that make up the enigma of the man. His father was a rebel against many of the social customs of Hinduism with the result that the family was cold shouldered by, their community.

At 15 he left India for Harrow and from there went on to Cambridge. cesan councils, held hich FACTs New York News Bureau THE "silent guerilla war la South Vietnam turned into a grim triangular trap this week as first Peking, and then Moscow, warned the United States of the "alarming consequences" to world peace. But for the ever-present threat of erupting into a major international hot spot, the South Vietnam operations might offer an ideal pretext for a comic opera. They could also become an exercise in how to get involved in a war nobody wants a war which could other SEATO nations as well. In the first place, the United States is now publicly committeed, with blood and treasure, to keep South Vietnam from Communist hands.

At the same time, however, there is little enthusiasm for the regime headed by flinty President Ngo Dinh Diem, who this week escaped his second assassination attempt in 15 months. Some quarters in Washington consider him extremely unpopular with his people, and both a reactionary and corrupt. Secondly, Moscow's seeming concern in South Vietnam is not so much with Jobs with such thoronghness mat in 1944 be received the first of his three kntabt-hoods the ILBJE. posts in incorporated trustees of the Church of Ceylon and the Y.W.C.A. and is a knight of the Order of St.

John of Jeru- After the war he re- salem. sumed a finance cost in This is iicnificant in a the Government and re- country where seven out vealed a flair for diplo- of ten people are Bud-macv in helninir to neon- rfhUt nnA mnt ef th Menon's rise could menace West When Nehru does go the general assumption is that his successor will be a middle-of-the-road man. Ztiate- the smooth course others are Hindus. 'r. PROTECT VOUC3 CAR I I'M IMI I sWl I I I I 1 1 1 11! II I Wil rt- I 11 III I ir ha I'll, LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE Our specialised service includes Free Survey and Quote, Free Measure Up and Advisory Service, Erection by experienced Tradesmen, including Concrete Floors, Paths, Driveways, Retaining' NO DEPOSIT EASY TERMS council approval IT LilSlb i WATER BOARD APPROVAL Also Available? AWNINGS PATIOS SHEDS IgKOra'-tlOlVl REP.

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