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Show Page Two FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1960 THE SALT LAKE TIMES 'V' r (Seltind lite Jeacltined 'ill edy if Nepal should ever fall to the growing power and pressure ' of Red China, her mighty north--: ern neighbor, since King Ma-hend- ra has been making a big effort, with U. S. technical aid and some $30 million in U. S. economic assistance, to strength-en the economy. India, the Co-lombo Plan nations and the UN are also striving to bring stra-tegic Nepjal overnight into the atomic age. U. S. funds are also being used to help build new roads, airports, industry and schools. King Ma-hend- ra has introduced a Univer-sity of Oregon program to train some 1,800 teachers. U. S. Infor-mation Service libraries are pop-ular in Katmandu, the capital. U. S. agricultural experts have rated the Rapti valley as one of the most promising new sources of food in Asia at a time when both China and India seek food for their growing populations. The agricultural commercial po-tential is the key to Nepal's de-velopment as a prosperous trad-ing nation. The land of Mount Everest and the "abominable snowman" sees itself as a future Asian Switzerland or Czechoslo-vakia. Comparison with Czechoslova-kia is ironic for Red China, while increasing economic aid in com-petition with the U. S., has also stepped up - military pressure. Peiping has claimed Mt. Everest the world's tallest peak, located in Nepal. Border indidents occur daily between the Korean war-traine- d Red Chinese troops and tough Gurkha soldiers. Since Red China's conquest of Tibet, Communist troops have massed in force along the Nepalese fron-tier and often cross over. Traditionally, Britain and late-ly India have been treaty bound to defend Nepal. But many fear that Indian Premier Nehru may agree to a plan giving Peiping a free hand in Nepal in exchange for an easing of Red pressure on India's own frontier. Katmandu's press has warned that Nepal may. become an Asian Czechoslovakia if India gives in to Peiping's de-mands. At the very time that Nepal's King Mahendra and Queen will be in the U. S. seeking greater aid and friendship Premier Chou En-l- ai is visiting Nepal's Premier Koirla, following a diplomatic trek to Burma and India to dis-cuss their frontiers. Chou often speaks of "compromising" the dispute. But Red China is also stepping up military border pres-sure on Nepal and Radio Peiping repeats claims to Mt. Everest. All this is important because once more the U. S. taxpayer is on the front line. Nepal's King and Queen are coming to the U. S. hoping for still greater aid to strengthen their country from the Red Chinese threat. Provoca-tive military aid is ulnlikely. Nepal is at present the only area where large scale U. S. and Red Chinese economic power compete directly. The high stakes in-volved are demanding our at-tention, while there is still time to do whatever has to be done. Americans will be paying so much attention, all of it well de-served, of course, to the visit of French President Charles De Gaulle next week that another important state visit is likely to be lost in the shuffle or ignored. This is the visit to the United States of young King Mahendra and Queen Ratna of Nepal, the Himalayan kingdom sandwiched in between India and Red China occupied Tibet and of growing importance to U. S. taxpayers. Their Majesties are scheduled to land in Hawaii April 25 and arrive in Washington, where they will be met by President Eisenhower April 27. They will arrive, almost unheralded and virtually overshadowed by the towering figure of France's De Gaulle. For that reason the tour has been extended, so that they will be traveling more widely than originally planned in the U. S., and especially in Oregon and California, until May 12. Nepal is important. It may ap-pear tiny compared to such geo-graphical giants as China and India. But Nepal's 54,000 square miles is larger than New Jersey and Pennsylvania combined, and with a population half as large, or some 8,000,000 persons. Nepal is a strategic buffer be-tween Communist China and In-dia. A look at the map also re-veals that direct or indirect Red Chinese control of Nepal could separate India from its overland links to Burma, Thailand, Cam-bodia, Viet Nam, Laos and Ma-laya, cutting the vast Asian sub continent in half. Loss of Nepal could also sepa- rate India from Bhutan, another key Himalayan Mountain buffer state India is committed to de-fend. But the chief strategic effect of any fall of Nepal would be to thrust Chinese power over the Himalayan barrier and free Red China's huge Red army to go down onto the plains of India itself, if Peiping ever chose to attack. Entirely apart from its strate-gic location, however is the value Nepal would have if seized or subverted into communist China. Its population is highly skilled and industrious. The land is among Asia's most fertile, cap-able of feeding many thousands of times its own sparse popula-tion and coveted by the Red Chi-nese. Any fall of Nepal could also cause other smaller Asian king-doms, forsaking the hermit life and moving into the 20th Cen-tury, to feel that we might aban-don them to Chinese Communist "creeping aggression," and they would doubtless begin throwing in their lot with Peiping. This would be a particular tragedy if Nepal went the way of Tibet, since it has been West-ern minded ever since conclud-ing its first treaty with Great Britain in 1792. The once forbidden kingdom of one of the most devotedly pro western of the many Himalayan buffer countries between China an dlndia. It has a high literarcy level and a high preponderance of Christians as a result of its position as a "doorway" to In-dia and China, through which countless missionaries of many faiths have passed. So pro-Weste- rn is Nepal re-garded that in 1949 the Soviet Union opposed its admission to the U. N. Nepal was admitted, howevtr, in an East-We- st admis-sions deal in 1955. It would be a particular trag-- Telephone Company Tests Mechanisms The world's most efficient tele-phone mechanism, which takes advantage of even the slightest pause in a telephone conversa-tion is now undergoing prelimi-nary tests on a transatlantic cable system, H. K. Richmond, district manager of the Mountain States Telephone Company said. The long lines department of American Telephone and Tele-graph Company is conducting the tests over a telephone cable system that links the U. S. with Great Britain. The new device, called TASI for Time Assign-ment Speech Interpolation, is completley transistorized and will approximately double the original capacity of the cable system TASI is due to go into service this summer. The cable system, similar to those that now connect the main land of the U. S. with continental Europe, Hawaii and Alaska, is presently equipped to carry 48 simultaneous conversations. Mr. Richmond said this is the way TASI works: An overseas call, like most long distance con-versations,- travels over a pair of channels, one for each direction of speech. As one party speaks the second party listens. Thus, one channel is being used while the other is idle. When a speaker pauses to catch his breath or col-lect his thoughts, both channels become idle. Whenever the number of calls exceed the number of voice paths available, TASI takes advantage of the idle speech time by flick-ing voices from channel to chan-nel. In other words, a talker's voice may travel over several different channels during the course of a conversation. Just be-fore these "talk spurts" reach the listener, they are sorted out and re-unit- ed by TASI to assure smooth transmission and, at the same time, maintain complete privacy. To find idle moments in channels, TASI examines each one 8,000 times a second. Studies have shown that the two channels used for an aver-age conversation are idle more than half of the time. The electronic system designed by Bell Laboratories, cost about $3,500,000 to install. The termi-nal equipment consists of 17 compact cabinets. One set of cab-inets is at White Plains, N. Y., and another in London. Each contains 10,000 transistors and 106,000 other components. Due to the cost of this equipment, it will not be used on local ex-change facilities. 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In pre-vious years, the state's high school seniors have been invited to spend a day on. the U of U campus, but this will be the first time the invitation has been ex-tended to high school juniors. Seniors interested in the attending University of Utah also may attend. Dr. A. Ray Olpin, U. of U. president, explained that High School Day is intended to give the juniors an actual look into a cross section of University life and an introduction to what they may expect in higher education. There will be university class-room experiences, a tour of the U of U facilities, counseling time (about education requirements, admissions problems, ROTC mat-ters and scholarships), luncheon, informal open houses at resi-dence halls, exhibits, and choice of attendance at an intra-squa- d athletic contest or a perform-ance of the spring ballet pro- - duction. Classroom experiences are to provide the high school students with an opportunity to meet with top University of Utah teachers in all of the university's colleges. The day's activities have been developed as a result of a survey of the state's high school prin-cipals. A committee of University of Utah faculty and students is ar-ranging the event. Co-chairm- en are Neal A. Maxwell, assistant to the president of the university and Mike Mattson, Richfield, a U of U senior. Each school district of the state is to provide transportation to the university for its own stu-dents. The day will begin with regis- tration at 8:30 in the U of U Union. |