Nehru's statement
A front-page report in The Guardian on October 23 quoted Prime Minister Nehru as saying that India could – if she wanted – produce a nuclear weapon in about two years. The newspaper's correspondent in New Delhi wrote that Mr. Nehru made this statement in an interview at his home. India could do this – “but would not”, the correspondent reported. “Mr. Nehru recently made the statement that India could build a bomb if she wanted, but this is the first time he has put an official date on it. He said that if their atomic energy policy had been for weapons rather than peace they could almost certainly have had a bomb in 1963.”
Russia explodes giant bomb
The Soviet Defence Minister, Marshal Malinovsky, confirmed the explosion of a 50-megaton super-bomb, informed sources said in Moscow on October 23. The Soviet bomb is believed to have been set off in the Arctic region where the USSR has carried out the majority of its nuclear tests in the new series which began in September last.
Founder of J&K
The 169 {+t} {+h} birth anniversary of Maharaja Gulabsingh, Founder of modern Jammu and Kashmir State, was celebrated in Jammu on October 21 with great enthusiasm. Tributes were paid to his valour and statesmanship.
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize for 1961 was awarded posthumously to the late United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjoeld on October 23. Mr. Hammarskjoeld became the first man to receive the prize posthumously. The U.N. Secretary-General was killed on September 18, when his plane crashed en route to Ndola Northern Rhodesia. He was seeking to end the fighting between the Katanga and U.N. forces by negotiation with President Moise Tshombe of the Katanga province. This is the third time a peace prize has gone to the U.N.. The U.N. Under-Secretary, Dr. Ralph Bunche of the United States, won the prize in 1950. The Office of the Committee for Refugees received the award in 1954. The Noble Peace Prize for 1960, which was not awarded last year, was granted on October 23 to Albert John Luthuli of Southern Rhodesia.
