March 26, 1959
TIBET: Calcutta, 21 – According to a press report from Darjeeling, a delegation from Tibet is to visit New Delhi to ask the Indian government to mediate in a bloody conflict in the region around the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The delegation is not seeking the intervention of the United Nations, believing that only the Indians have any chance of success. Meanwhile a large-scale battle has been going on in the area since March 13. According to the official Indian radio station, a Foreign Ministry spokesman has confirmed this. The hostilities appear to have broken out around Lhasa after a demonstration by Tibetans last week, preventing the Dalai Lama from leaving his palace and presenting himself before the Chinese authorities without his bodyguards as requested. The Dalai Lama has been placed under house arrest for life in the imposing and monumental Potala Palace in Lhasa, according to one, as yet unconfirmed, report. His personal guard has been replaced by Chinese soldiers. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, who is currently in Srinagar, is scheduled today to visit Kashmir, near the Tibetan border.
