557 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড believes that they should keep out of the contact and that they should not supply arms to either side. Among the popular papers, the Sunday Mirror deplores the due fact that the rich countries have done so little to avert this crisis. But the paper says, the rich countries are powerless and quite unable to stop the war. Nevertheless the Sunday Mirror hopes that a quick solution can be found either through the United Nations or by China putting pressure on Pakistan to stop fighting. The News of the World and the Sunday Express both think that the British Government should offer to mediate because both India and Pakistan are members of the Common wealth. In the Observer, there is also a long analysis of the background to the present fighting, by Cyril Dunn, who is the paper's chief reporter on India and Pakistan. Dunn sees the rests of the trouble in the original partition of the sub-continent. But Dunn does think, that if Kashmir had succeeded to Pakistan the two countries might have been able to live together in peace. He feels that it is difficult not to look somewhat sceptically at statements of intention by the Indian Government when fighting breaks out between India and Pakistan, but he agrees that the people of East Pakistan have good reasons for wanting to leave Pakistan. What Dunn fears is that if the present fighting continues and a new Muslim state is a eventually born, the Hindu refugees will not return and Bangladesh will not remain independent for long, John Grigg writing in the Sunday Times says that it is most important to remember that the background to the fighting is the enormous burden the refugees have put on India. He believes that the financial cost of the refugees has been staggering and that the social tensions they have produced, almost unbearable. Grigg says that Mrs. Gandhi was most reluctant to make use of regular troops inside East Pakistan and that she only did so because she was convinced that the Great Powers could not or would not force President Yahya Khan to change his policies. He goes on to say that Mrs Ghandi now deserves the support of Britain. There is also a long article in the Sunday Times by Anthony Mascarenhas who was until quite recently Visited India. Mascarenhas believes that India was reluctantly forced to the conclusion that war was the only solution to the refugee problem after the disappointing international support it received over the last eight months. India was, he thinks particularly disappointed by the failure of the American government to put pressure on President Yahya Khan. He quotes an Indian official as saying, "we went to America to ask for help and all we got were exhortations to patience and forbearance." Mascarenhas says that one possibility the Indian government thought of was dispersing the Hindu refugees amongst other Indian states but the State governments were not willing to accept this because they did not feel that they could cope with this additional burden. Mascarenhas says that India's aims now are to establish an independent Bangladesh so that refugees can go back and to remove any chance of Pakistan over challenging India again. Pakistan can only hope to gain territory in the West and use this as a bargaining counter. Mascarenhas says that although a war can only increase the economic problems
