518 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ংলাদেশ সমর্থক আমেরিকানদের তৎপরতা বাংলাদেশ ডিফেন্স লীগ আগষ্ট, ১৯৭১ OHIO: FRIENDS OF EAST BENGAL B. Chandrasekaran reports from Ohio: We are proud to report to you the starting of an organization in Columbus called The Friends of East Bengal'. About 15 interested persons, mainly students and faculty members of the Ohio State University, got together the 29" of July to discuss our responses to the tragedy in Bangladesh. We had a larger meeting organized as a result of our decisions at this first meeting. The second meeting, which was actually the charter meeting of the Group, had an attendance of more than 60 people, this time representing a larger cross-section of the Community and was held on 5 August. We were fortunate in having as our main speaker Dr. J. K.- Bhattacharjee of Oxford, Ohio who has been very active for the cause of Bangladesh, and has been in contact with many similar organizations. The meeting was a great success, in the sense most of the attendees have agreed to serve on one committee or another as volunteers. We have already organized sign campaigns for petitions to Congressmen and the President to end military and economic aid to W. Pakistan. As a result of our appeals to the local Unitarian and Catholic churches, over 100 telegrams were sent over the last weekend, urging local Congressmen to vote in support of the Gallagher Amendment. Displays and information boths in many centers in Columbus are planned. We are planning to concentrate on the local church groups in the beginning for collecting funds for refugee relief. Public service sports on television and radio for this purpose are also planned. At the moment, there are three major committees in operation: 1. relief 2. publicity and information and 3. Organization of charity shows, large meetings, etc. The address of the group is: Friends of East Bengal P.O. Box. 3035 Columbus, Ohio 43210 Arizona: Friends of East Bengal Jon Markoulis writes from Arizona: We have started a “Friends of East Bengal” group in Tempe, Ariz. So far we have called a press conference and held a vigil in front of the Federal Building in Phoenix. The
