 It secretariat was headed by Erik Colban, the Norwegian ambassador to the UK, with the British Quaker Richard Symonds acting as Colban's secretary.Sources state that the political atmosphere in both India and Pakistan was hostile to the Commission upon its arrival in the subcontinent in July 1948.Upon arriving in Karachi, the Commission was informed by Pakistan that three brigades of its regular troops had been fighting in Kashmir since May, which was described as a "bombshell" by Josef Korbel.