The enemy of one’s enemy is often one’s friend. The logic may be slightly perverted but who cares for logic in diplomacy? Pakistan has long branded India as her enemy no.1. Pakistan also finds that Portugal entertains similar feelings for India. What can be more logical therefore than Pakistan and Portugal becoming thick as thieves? When the Queen of England visited Lisbon, Britons found Altrinchams and Muggerides in their midst but Iskander Mirza was luckier. At a banquet in Lisbon recently, Iskander Mirza and Francisco Craveiro Lopes discovered a great deal in common. For one thing, both are generals. Secondly, both agree that there are “concrete problems which affect the tranquility” of both Pakistan and Portugal. However, unlike the Queen of England, the President of Pakistan does not have to contend with critics at home. It is one happy united family and when Iskander Mirza exclaims that Pak-Portugal relations “Would someday serve as a model for Asian-European friendship,” there is an echoing chorus from Karachi. The Karachi Press had long made the discovery that Goa is a “country” (sic). This might have surprised Lisbon a bit as being a little more concrete than “concrete,” but not the allies of Libon. Pakistan’s Minister for Interior, finding himself in Madrid, remembered his patriotic duty, Dulles and NATO and declared that Goa belonged to Portugal. Expounding his geography a little further, the Minister for Interior affirmed that the population of Goa wanted to remain Portuguese. It is as if Colonel Blimp had said that the population of India wanted to remain British. One might have expected the Pakistani Minister for Interior to have the courtesy of consulting the people of Goa about their wishes before presuming to speak on their behalf, but after his startling revelation of ignorance and utter disregard for geography and history, not to speak of anthropology and archaeology, all that remains to be said; “Sir Iskander is right; but why can’t Pakistan decide whether to remain American or European?”
(Edit, November 20, 1957)
