THE WEEK

• Communist guerrillas in Laos last week were devastated to learn that the man they had just shot down was a Frenchman. A regrettable error, they told their subsequent captors. “We thought he was an American.” Fair game in any country, any season.

• Pandit Nehru is a man of determined insensitivity and saintly patience. Barely four hours after the departure of a smiling Chinese Premier Chou En-lai from New Delhi, a tired Nehru found some of that insensitivity worn off, and told Parliament that his adversary—come to discuss the border dispute—was a “hard rock.” Their talks had settled nothing. The Red Chinese method of negotiation is to seize 51,000 square miles of Indian territory, and then offer to give back 36,000 in northeastern India, and keep 15,000 in Ladakh. This did not strike Nehru as much of a bargain, and he allowed as how he didn’t think he’d go to Peiping to discuss it. Nehru’s patience, however, abided: when an impetuous MP asked about the possibilities of “force” in convincing the Chinese to get out of India, Nehru said that “talks or steps” were preferable. Chou, meanwhile, emplaned for Nepal, where he is showing a goodnatured interest in Mt. Everest.

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• Communist guerrillas in Laos last week were devastated to learn that the man they had just shot down was a Frenchman. A regrettable error, they told their subsequent captors. “We thought he was an American.” Fair game in any country, any season.

• Pandit Nehru is a man of determined insensitivity and saintly patience. Barely four hours after the departure of a smiling Chinese Premier Chou En-lai from New Delhi, a tired Nehru found some of that insensitivity worn off, and told Parliament that his adversary—come to discuss the border dispute—was a “hard rock.” Their talks had settled nothing. The Red Chinese method of negotiation is to seize 51,000 square miles of Indian territory, and then offer to give back 36,000 in northeastern India, and keep 15,000 in Ladakh. This did not strike Nehru as much of a bargain, and he allowed as how he didn’t think he’d go to Peiping to discuss it. Nehru’s patience, however, abided: when an impetuous MP asked about the possibilities of “force” in convincing the Chinese to get out of India, Nehru said that “talks or steps” were preferable. Chou, meanwhile, emplaned for Nepal, where he is showing a goodnatured interest in Mt. Everest.