ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড We know, for example, that in that part of East Pakistan which is still suffering from the disastrous floods of last November the lives of 4.50 million people depend on relief supplies from outside. Yet 150,000 tons of those supplies are at this moment held up in Chittagong and there appeals to be no way of getting them to those in need. We also know that when the International Red Cross sought to send an aircraft to Dacca immediately the scale of the current tragedy became known, the Pakistan Government refused to allow it to land. The United Nations must have, an immediate chance to evaluate the problem and to make recommendations on how\to meet it. We would all wish the Government to use their influence on President Yahya Khan to reach agreement on this in the near future. Several Hon. Members have speculated about the proper role of the United Kingdom in these events. The Minister said that we have an historic connection with Pakistan; we have many human ties. We were responsible for the 1947 settlement which brought Pakistan into being. My Right Hon. Friend the Member for Stepney (Mr. Shore) was not historically accurate when he said that it is impossible for a State whose components are separated by 1,000 miles to survive. Mr. Shore: 1 did not say that. Mr. Healey: It is possible for this to happen. It happens in the case of Malaysia and the United States, where Hawaii and Alaska are States separated by large distances. We all hope it will happen with the United Arab Republic. But we know from our own history that if a State has components widely separated, it is vitally important that the Government responsible should show the same respect for the interests and aspirations of the distant component as for those nearer at hand. We learned this problem the hard way in the 18th century, or the United States of America would not exist. We are also an ally of Pakistan in S.E.A.T.O. and CENTO. I hope that the Minister will give an assurance that we are not sending any arms to Pakistan and would not propose to do so until we are satisfied that this tragedy is moving towards a solution. As has been said by several Hon. Members, Britain, as the ex-Imperial Power, is in a difficult position. We have no right to decide what the Pakistan Government should do. Any advice we give may perhaps often be less welcome than advice which comes from others. As the Hon. Member for Torquay (Sir F. Bennett) said, our experience in Northern Ireland shows that even with good will and Government power it is not always easy to solve a problem which derives from communal and religious differences. Certainly a nation which produced Lord North has no right to pride itself on a unique political wisdom in dealing with this type of problem. Nevertheless, while we recognize that the Government must inevitably in some areas confine themselves, as the Foreign Secretary said the other day, to private representations, the nature of our connections with East Pakistan and our responsibility there give Hon. Members who are not members of the Government both the right and the duty to express their concern a little more directly. The central problem, identified by several Hon. Members, is that there is no possibility of distributing relief on the scale required and of giving effective economic aid to Pakistan unless that country is moving towards a political settlement of the problems in East Pakistan. 1 confess that I believe that the re-establishment of what
