41 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড concern with this part of the world, where, if I were not in my own country. I would feel more at home than anywhere else I know. There was a follow-up to this, because, in a previous incarnation, when I was for a time Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, I was involved in the signing of the Indus Basin Agreement with India, Pakistan and other countries and the World Bank, which I believe to have been the most fruitful single act of co-operation between those two countries-India and Pakistan-which has ever been contrived since their independence, and from which those of us who signed it hoped would spring a new era of co-operation and mutual trust. I said that I have the deepest sympathy with the people of East Pakistan in the terrible dilemma and the appalling catastrophe in which they now find themselves. Equally, I can see that the Government of West Pakistan, faced with the imminent threat, and fact, of an attempt at secession, had to act drastically at the time-l do not condone the excesses which we believe have occurred-if they were not to be overwhelmed and faced with a hopeless long war of recon quest or a fait accompli. It is a thousand pities that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman felt himself unable to accept the new constitutional arrangements which were the basis of the general election which he so handsomely and overwhelmingly won in his own province. This was an end to the long period of martial law which was the only administration known to Pakistan. There was no constitution. The whole object of holding this general election for a constituent assembly was to make it possible, at long last, on a one-man, onevote basis which we can understand and applaud, to set up a genuinely democratic constitution, with five provinces, of which East Pakistan would be one, and with the old discrimination against East Pakistan, which have been the subject of a number of speeches today and which I fully accept existed, removed. If only he had been content to go ahead with this, he could well have become the first Prime Minister of a democratically elected Pakistani Government. Indeed, the President of Pakistan is on record as having said that he foresaw this possibility. But the chance was cast away, for reasons which are perhaps not our concern. Rahman chose to opt for U.D.I., by putting forward conditions which went beyond those on which the general election had been fought, including the demand for virtual secession, which was certainly not put to the people of East Pakistan in the election, and which went so far that no central government could accept it. I agree with my Hon. Friend the Member for Torquay (Sir F. Bennett) that a de facto cease-fire has already occurred. This is not to say that sporadic fighting, shooting, looting, border incidents, and the like do not go on, but I believe that the army is in pretty firm control of the situation. Despite reports to the contrary, I believe that things are beginning to return to normal. Chittagong port and its installations are operative again, which means that exports are now beginning to leave the country. People are trickling back to the town, work is restarting and, contrary to what has been said in this debate, I believe that the effect on the rural
