U.S. team urges Johnson to allocate more grain to India
The three-man Congressional team which visited India in December is understood to have urged President Johnson to allocate to India another 1.7 million tonnes of grain (in addition to the 900,000 tonnes allocated on December 22). The group wanted to make sure that India would thus have adequate food supplies not only during the crucial period of the Indian elections but also until the end of June. The 900,000 tonnes sanctioned in December would last until the middle of March.
At the rate of 700,000 tonnes a month, India would need another 2.5 million tonnes for the period from mid-March to the end of June. With the United States providing 1.7 million tonnes of this, it was apparently the Congressional team’s hope that the balance of 800,000 tonnes would be provided or paid for by other rich countries. Mr. Johnson has now evidently decided to act on the Congressional team’s recommendation only after learning what other rich countries are willing to do to supplement the U.S. food aid effort. He has ordered one of his senior officials, Under-Secretary Eugene Rostow, to go to New Delhi and then to Tokyo, Rome, Paris, Bonn, Brussels, The Hague and London to impress on them all that the U.S. alone cannot shoulder India’s food problem and that they too must do all they can to help India avert famine.
India steadily replacing military equipment
The Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. P.P. Kumaramangalam, yesterday [January 14] asked the Army personnel to look after their equipment well. He said it was heartening to note that most of the equipment came from indigenous production.
There was no significant expansion of the Army at present and new equipment was steadily coming in to replace the old out-of-date equipment which had to be retained out of necessity during 1962.
Addressing the Army Day parade here [New Delhi], he said they could serve the nation by conserving food and equipment which cost the nation money. The General assured those personnel who came from drought-stricken areas that everything was being done to ensure that adequate food was available to their families, who lived there. Gen. Kumaramangalam said, “Success cannot be achieved by good weapons alone, it is how you use them and the spirit you fight with, that brings victory.” He expressed confidence that if the nation “calls upon you to protect them you will again be as successful as you were in the last operations.” “For the successful conduct of modern wars inter-Services co-operation was very essential. I am glad that this co-operation between our three Services has been at its best,” he said.
Satellite positioned in space
A new Early Bird-type communications satellite has been stationed over the Pacific Ocean, and is expected to be ready for commercial use in about two weeks’ time.
Jubilant officials of the Communications Satellite Corporation (Com-sat) announced late last night [January 14] that the satellite named Intelvsat-two had been successfully positioned in synchronous equatorial orbit near the international dateline and “all on-board communications systems appear to be functioning properly.” The spacecraft, launched last Wednesday, will act as a switchboard in space, providing commercial and military telephone, teletype and television services between the United States and the Far East.
