550 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড course in both cases we're faced with a terrible human tragedy. He hoped that the British Government and indeed all Commonwealth Governments will do whatever they can to get relief going, will be prepared to give and to help organise it If there are difficulties between the Red Cross and Relief Organizations and the Pakistan Government, the British Government may be able to help to sort them out as they did once when there were difficulties between the Red Cross and the Nigerian Government. Mr. Stewart was asked if the British Government could realistically take this kind of action. He replied that it could in the relief field. It was important that they should lay chief emphasis on the fact that they simply want to help to avoid human suffering rather then attempt to dictate a political answer to Pakistan's troubles. Mr. Stewart accepted that there might be a risk of being accused of intervening, interfering in another country's internal affairs and said it was prudent to take account of this. One did not want by an ill-judged action or statement to embitter feeling and possibly make relief work more difficult. But he thought that the British Government could make it quite clear that what it is concerned with is to and suffering and try to do so through an all-Commonwealth framework, so that it would not be the British Government trying to tell Pakistan how it ought to run its affairs but the Commonwealth, as friends of all the people of Pakistan, offering their good offices and goodwill. Mr. Stewart said that he feared that the chances of reconciliation between East and West Pakistan seem terribly small. But wondered if widening the horizon a little, the peoples and Governments of Pakistan, East and west, and of India, despite all the difficulties could not look at the common needs of the whole sub-continent. Mr. Stewart wondered whether, taking into consideration the danger of great power involvement and the natural catastrophe of the recent cyclone and the human catastrophe of civil war, they could not see how great their need is to try to act together. Asked if he thought secession was inevitable, Mr. Stewart did not like to use that word but did find it difficult to see how there could be reconciliation, ne was asked to what extent British and Western interests were threatened by the civil war situation and the threat of a split Pakistan. He replied that the split would be a great tragedy because it would weaken the power of the Government to cope with what are the real problems of Pakistan: poverty and the attempt to raise the standards of life. Interfered with this makes the task of coping with these problems more difficult. Britain's overwhelming interest lies in a prosperous Pakistan. Asked what the long term possibilities of the situation were, he said that the worst might be the enforcement of united Pakistan but with no goodwill and constant bitterness and friction. Nevertheless he ended the interview on a note of hope, saying that human beings sometimes do rise to the occasion when they are faced with the worst possible consequences. It was possible that a measure of better understanding, not only between East and West Pakistan but between Pakistan and India might arise.
