RAWALPINDI: President Ayub Khan today [Sept 27] emphasised the need for preserving antiquities, manuscripts and other documents of art and historical importance, and appealed to the owners to voluntarily loan their collections to the national museums.

In his appeal released to the Press, the President assured the owners that they would continue to retain their ownership and the national museum authorities would only maintain and display them on their behalf, with their names and family history suitably inscribed on plaques.

The President in his appeal said: “Antiquities, manuscripts, old documents and other objects of art and historical importance are cultural treasures of a nation. They depict the history, life, civilisation and the cultural glory of a country. The preservation of such material is necessary to enrich the knowledge of our past and to ensure continuity in historical research.

“Unfortunately, many of our historical relics are scattered all over the country. Only a small part of these is preserved in museums and libraries. It can safely be presumed that a significant portion of such material is in the private collections and possession of old families and individuals. As such, this material is inaccessible to the people and scholars of history.

“I am anxious that such relics and material are carefully preserved and made available to scholars and the general public for their enlightenment and edification.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Paris,] the United States Ambassador to Saigon, Mr Henry Cabot Lodge, said in an interview broadcast here yesterday that a third world war would follow in a little time if his country abandoned South Viet-Nam to the Communists.

Mr Lodge ... said: “We do not wish to extend the conflict. The fact that we are restricting aggression here (in South Viet-Nam) is a guarantee, an assurance that the conflict will not spread.”

Published in Dawn September 28th, 2016