The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 186
170 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN dictated in London. Unfortunately, he was in the next cabin to mine and the partition was very thin so that I could not get any rest. His constant pounding of the keys forced me to keep awake also. When we arrived in New York, we were met at the airport by our then Ambassador in Washington, Mr. Hasan Ispahani, and our Consul General in New York, Mr. Shaffi. They told us that not knowing where or when we might be able to arrive, the Ambassador had made a request to the Security Council that the hearing of the case be postponed by a couple of days, and the Security Council had fixed the 15th of January for opening the hearings on the Kashmir case. During the time thus gained we were able to get our documents together, and make some study of the case; and then the hearings started. I mention these details to give an idea of the background against which one had to work, apart from the nature of the problems themselves which were complicated and confusing enough. It is not necessary to go into the details of the Kashmir case here. Everybody knows that the Security Council started very well. The members were very keenly interested and were anxious that a speedy solution to the dispute should be found along lines upon which both Pakistan and India, appeared to be agreed; that is to say, that the question of the accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan or India be settled through the freely-expressed wishes of the people of Kashmir, to be ascertained by means of a free and impartial plebiscite to be held under the auspices of the United Nations. As a matter of fact, at the stage members around the table were rather surprised at how much agreement there was between the two governments, despite the differences that had arisen, and they thought it would be easy to prescribe what was needed in order to insure a fair and impartial plebiscite. The Right Honourable Philip Noel Baker, who was then Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and had come over himself to represent the United Kingdom in the Security Council discussions on Kashmir, worked extremely hard to build an agreement in the Security Council itself on what needed to be done before we should separate. He has on several occasions since told me quite plainly how distressed he was that right in the middle of his efforts, when he had, every hope that at his instance Sir Gopalaswami Ayyangar and Sir Girja Shankar Bajpai would succeed in persuading Prime Minister Nehru to go along with the