At his talks to-day [January 12, New Delhi] with the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. Pierre Trudeau, made a fervent plea that India and Canada should exert their influence to see that the Commonwealth did not break up over the proposed British arms sales to South Africa. The two Prime Ministers were agreed that the Commonwealth was a useful institution, but shared the fear that it would be extremely difficult to deal with the chain reaction produced by this ill-advised British move to placate South Africa at the risk of provoking retaliation by the African nations. The Canadian Prime Minister was making a gallant bid to enlist India’s co-operation to salvage the Commonwealth with some face-saving formula if the African leaders decided to precipitate a crisis by staging a mass walk-out in Singapore. But he confessed quite candidly that he did not have any plan of action or strategy in mind at the moment, even after his talks last night with Mr. Edward Heath, British Prime Minister. Mrs. Gandhi made it clear to Mr. Trudeau that while India would do what it could to avert a showdown in Singapore, it would have to consider whether it was worthwhile for it to continue in the Commonwealth if the African countries decided to quit in protest against the British action. She said the basic concept behind the Commonwealth was not only complete equality between all the member-States, but also avoidance of racial discrimination in any form.
