61 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড when such assistance becomes possible, I hope that the Government and the United Nations agencies will exert the strongest possible control and supervision over it. We must make sure that assistance given for humanitarian purposes is not used for others. I am sure that the whole House hopes that the Government will be generous in dealing with the situation, especially the immediate problem of the vast refugee camps in India. 2.27 p.m. Mr. Bernard Braine (Essex, South-East): The debate poses an acute dilemma for all Right Hon. and Hon. Members. On the one hand, there cannot be indifference to what is happening to the people of East Pakistan. Every speech to which I have listened has made that plain. We share a common interest in what has been happening and a common desire to do something practical about it. On the other hand, Pakistan is a sovereign State with which he have had long, close and cordial relations. It is also a country which, for some years, has been faced with acute economic difficulties. Truet, we in company with other nations, have been helping in that country's economic development, but clearly, because Pakistan is an independent sovereign and proud nation, we have to weigh our words and to plan our actions in this situation with great care if what we say and do is not to be counterproductive. It is necessary to recognize, as some of us had to say repeatedly during the tragic Nigerian civil war, that we no longer administer independent Commonwealth countries. Our writ no longer runs there. Often there is much resentmentunderstandably so-at any- moralizing or interference from former Imperial Powers. Independence means not merely the freedom to manage one's own affairs, but also to make one's own mistakes. Yet, having said that, it is clear that we cannot leave the matter there. There are, after all, deep bonds of affection between the people of this country and all the peoples of the Indian sub-continent. We cannot erase three centuries of close association between ourselves and the peoples of Indian Empire, as it was, and of India and Pakistan as they are now, because this is part of our history; the association runs too deep. There are close personal ties between many of us here and our friends in India and Pakistan. There are, too close ties of commercial interest, and, morally, as a number of Hon. Members have said, we have some share of responsibility for the way in which the Indian sub-continent was divided. Moreover, in company with others, we have for some years assumed a responsibility for providing aid for the economies of both India and Pakistan, and we are therefore deeply involved in the orderly development of both countries. There is no greater British interest than the spreading of tranquility across the world with successfully prosecuting war against want, disease and illiteracy. This is a situation which opens up a new era of opportunity for Britain. People talk about British influence, and in this field, at any rate, it can be very great. I shall not say anything about the actions of the Pakistan Army, I do not have acCeSS to
