533 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড For almost three months new, since the Pakistan army's crackdown, pretty well everybody concerned with the tragedy of East Pakistan has persisted in hoping for the best, in spite of all the evidence. The Pakistan government has clung to the belief that the secessionist sentiment in the East had been an aberration and that the situation was rapidly returning to normal. Only this week the military governor, General Tikka Khan, said conditions in the province were normal and peaceful. As for the outside world, which responded so energetically to the threat of a cholera epidemic, it has been all tee ready to assume that with the dispatch of food, blankets and medicines, the worst would be ever. It has been left to Mrs. Gandhi to foreshadow the harsh and bitter future that threatens the Indian sub-continent. "We may have to pass through hell," were the words she used in the Indian Parliament when she spoke of the awesome problems created by the influx of refugees from East Pakistan-new numbering six millions and still rising. Then, a moment later, she emphasized that India had no intention of allowing them to go back home as she put it "only to be butchered". In her view, the political settlement which people speak of as necessary in East Pakistan becomes ever mere remote with each day that passes. Mrs. Gandhi's assessment betrays an anxiety that extends beyond the immediate fate of the refugees. As the hope of a political settlement diminishes, so the likelihood increases of the homeless millions becoming permanent settlers in Dacca a truly daunting prospect for a country which as she said, is one of the poorest in the world. One of the most puzzling features of the upheaval has been the fact that refugees continue to flew across the frontier twelve weeks after the Pakistan army, went into action towards the end of March. There seems to be little doubt that the first waves of refugees were set in motion by the harshness of the army's methods. After that the movement could have been expected to lese its momentum: the Pakistan authorities say that resistance is scattered and ineffective, and even the supporters of the Bangladesh secessionist movement claim no more than taken resistance to the army. Yet the flew of refugees continues. It's no wonder that Mrs. Gandhi says that the refugees pose a threat to peace far which the world must share responsibility. The world has not yet convincingly demonstrated its acceptance of this responsibility. Although there have been many contributions from overseas, the biggest coming from the United States and Britain, the total premised amounts only to £12.5 million towards the £73 millions asked far by the United Nations. And that £73 million is only about half the sum India says is needed. Mrs. Gandhi's solution to the problem, which she has repeated again and again, is for the big powers to put pressure on the Pakistan government to come to terms with the political leaders of the Eastern province the very leaders who have been denounced by President Yahya Khan. It is a suggestion fraught with danger, for it violates the sacred right of an independent country to conduct its affairs in its awn way, free from outside interference. Even so, the very scale of the problem thrust upon India does make it an international one; and in the apprehension of this, the world may well find Mrs. Gandhi's a persuasive argument, unless Pakistan can show clearer signs of possessing the will to face the task of a political settlement.
