Long-suppressed report

Sir, - It is good to note that Pakistan has at last decided to release the long-suppressed Justice Hamdoor Rehman report on the 1971 war.

The Government of India would do well to release the even longer- suppressed Lt. General Henderson-Brooks and Brigadier P. S. Bhagat report on the 1962 India-China war.

The then government did not cooperate with this enquiry commission. Intelligence Bureau chief B. N. Mullik even told Maj. Gen. D. K. Palit, the then Director of Military Operations, not to make the Prime Minister's and the Defence Minister's notes to the Defence Ministry available to the commission. And according to Maj. Gen. Palit (War in the High Himalaya) most of the Army records of the period have been destroyed.

Even so the country would like to know what little is available of the what, why and how of that disaster. The people of India have a right to know the facts. In the absence of facts, India- China relations cannot be established on a well-informed basis.

K. R. Malkani,

New Delhi

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