Rawalpindi, Nov 7
Pakistan today won a declaration of support from China, but it falls far short of the specific assurances given to India by Russia under the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty.

In a speech at a banquet in Peking attended by the powerful Pakistan political and military mission now in China. Mr Chi Peng-fei, the acting Foreign Minister, said: “Our Pakistani friends may rest assured that should Pakistan be subjected to foreign aggression, the Chinese Government and people will, as always, resolutely support the Pakistan Government in their just struggle to defend their state sovereignty and national independence.”

The statement contains no hard commitments and observers here do not believe that it goes beyond the ambiguously worded promise of support that Mr Chou En-lai, the Chinese Prime Minister, made to President Yahya Khan in a letter on April 12.

The delegation sent by President Yahya Khan to Peking was composed of prominent personalities. Led by Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former Foreign Minister known for his pro-China sympathies, it included Air Marshal Rahim Khan, chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Lieutenant-General Gul Hasan, Army chief-of-staff, Rear-Admiral Rashid, Navy chief-of-staff, and Sultan Muhammad Khan, the Foreign Secretary. The delegation leaves China tomorrow.

There are some signs here of disappointment at the outcome of the mission. Officials had been intimating earlier that a joint communique would emerge, but Mr Bhutto brushed this aside in Peking by saying that the two sides had not found the need for one. He added that the result of the talks “should be a deterrent to aggression in Asia.”

For Pakistan, one of the key questions has been whether in the event of a war China would hold down Indian divisions by diversionary action on India’s northern frontier. No promise of such action seems to have been forthcoming.

Together with the general vagueness of the new Chinese statement, this suggests that China is going to do nothing that might risk the threat of Russian retaliation under the Indo-Soviet treaty. This pact obliges India and the Soviet Union to come to each others’ aid in the event of aggression by a third country.

The Chinese seem to have tried to compensate for the lack of firm commitments by a strongly worded condemnation of India. Mr Chi Peng-fei said: “The Indian Government has crudely interfered in Pakistan's internal affairs and carried out subversive action and military threats against Pakistan by continuing to exploit the East Pakistan question. The Chinese Government and people are greatly concerned over the present tension in the subcontinent”

It would equally appear that Pakistan can expect Chinese support in the United Nations. Mr Chi praised President Yahya’s proposal that the armed forces of both sides should be withdrawn from their mutual frontiers.

Delhi: China has appreciably altered its position on East Pakistan, Indian sources suggested here today after receiving reports of Mr Chi’s speech.

They noted that Mr Chi had said that the East Pakistan problem should be settled “by the Pakistani people themselves”. Hitherto Peking had insisted on preserving Pakistan's “sovereignty”.

Delhi, Nov 7.— Unimpeachable Indian military sources said here today that in spite of official denials Indian troops crossed the borders into East Pakistan on Sunday and Monday last week to silence Pakistani guns that were shelling Indian territory. This was the first confirmation that Indian soldiers had operated inside East Pakistan in the current crisis.—New York Times News Service.
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