The DMO put this down in the form of a note to HQ Eastern Command and sent it off and, amazingly, did nothing more about it even after the situation escalated dramatically in the next few days. Later, somewhat meekly defending his inaction on this critical bit of information, Palit was to say, ‘Dr Gopal never told me the Chinese did not accept our argument in 1954 and had, in fact, claimed the Thagla and Khenzemane to be on the northern side of the McMahon Line.’
