CHANCELLERIES: The Other Cheek

Red China has been mightily angry with Prime Minister Nehru’s India. For months the Peking radio and press have assaulted the New Delhi government as an agent of “reactionary imperialists.” Last week the propaganda insults touched an arrogant high. The Chinese Communist Youth Federation wired a “protest” to Nehru over sentences meted out to left-wing terrorists in Hyderabad (including 30 death penalties). The telegram sputtered with “deep indignation over . . . this Fascist atrocity,” demanded immediate “canceling of these sentences.”

Two days later Nehru’s government, which fancies itself as a “neutral” force between Communism and democracy, became the first important non-Communist nation to recognize the Peking regime.