পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/১০৩

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75 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড Certainly, at this stage we understand that the World Bank report on Pakistan's debt crisis is said to be complete. It is said to have been sent to Britain to be in the hands, no doubt, of the Minister, as of other members of the aid consortium. We know that the rescheduling of debts is being sought by Pakistan. We know that the aid consortium has been meeting in Paris and that its pledging session is scheduled for next month. We are a so aware that foreign aid has been financing nearly 40 per cent of Pakistan's gross investment during the 1960s. It has been a little less recently, but on the whole that is the figure. If we consider who gave so much of the aid, the figures are extremely relevant to this debate. For the record, I give them. From 1967 to 1969, which are the latest figures available from the Development Assistance Committee of O.E.C.D., the total average aid given to Pakistan from bilateral donors and multilateral agencies was £ 195 million, of which about £ #56 million was bilateral and the rest multilateral. Among the bilateral donors in 1969 were the United States with £50 million, Britain with nearly £9 million and Canada with £11 million providing almost half of the bilateral aid flowing to Pakistan. I have no doubt that another major contributor was the Federal Republic of Germany, although I do not have the precise figure. In any consideration of the conditions necessary for the flow of aid to Pakistan, especially to East Pakistan, it is highly relevant that the discussion should take place, as it must, in the World Bank, in the Aid Consortium and among other bilateral donors, against the background of such a catastrophic economic crisis. While I do not go quite as far as The Guardian, which says that perhaps the greatest hope for the people of East Pakistan lies in the desperate economic plight of West Pakistan, clearly it is a highly relevant factor. I do not believe that we need to enter into the theology of cutting off aid in these circumstances. As a principle, I have always believed that this has serious defects. In practice, it can and would defeat one's purpose in a situation where we want to get help into East Pakistan if there is a way of doing it. On the other hand, I do not agree entirely with the Minister's strong disapproval of the rod "leverage", which has become almost a naughty word since Teresa Hyter used it recently. When leverage by aid donors is exercised on the basis of international agreements in the interests of social justice and humanity and for peace, it can be legitimate. It seems to me that these are the circumstances that confront us. As the Minister rightly said, a political solution is necessary. But a political solution surely can be broken down into two aspects. The first is that there must be an end to the killing and suffering. There must be conditions of peace and the cooperation without which peace is not meaningful. That is a matter which must be of direct concern to those who are helping to contribute towards reconstruction in East Pakistan and towards building up a sound basis for the economies of both East and West Pakistan. The second aspect of a political solution is what is to be the eventual future of the relationship between East and West Pakistan. That is not a matter of direct concern to those who supply the aid. Therefore one can regard it as proper to say that, as an international community seeking to provide practical economic and financial help, we must do all that we can to promote the conditions of peace, tolerance and co-operation which are necessary for an effective aid programme.