Sea Lawyer

Ever since Red China's surprise attack a year ago, India's traditional policy of neutrality has been more honored in words than in deeds. While mounting the old homilies about nonalignment, India has petitioned the West for $1.5 billion in military aid and has agreed to a Western air-defense umbrella. Last week the U.S. Seventh Fleet prepared to take up positions in the Indian Ocean.

The question was broached to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Maxwell D. Taylor on a visit to India last week. Under the proposal, a task force of one aircraft carrier with nuclear bomb-carrying jets and four escort ships would patrol in the Indian Ocean for two to four months at a time. Supplied by support vessels, the task force would never have to tie up at any Indian port for provisions.

Predictably, the Seventh Fleet proposal stirred up protests. The Indian press maintained that the plan was another threat to Indian neutrality, Pakistan claimed that it was a hostile gesture on the part of both countries, and Red China said that it was another example of the subversion of India by Western imperialists. As for Nehru, he performed like a sea lawyer in lukewarmly endorsing the plan. "How can we object to anyone going where he likes on the high seas," he said.

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