62 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড the information which so many correspondents and, indeed, some Hon. Members seem to have. I have no doubt that what has happened in East Pakistan is frightful. There is nothing more tragic than a civil war, and clearly unpleasant things have been happening on both sides. But we should be concerned with the situation which led up to this unhappy state of affairs, the way in which that situation developed, and what are the chances of rescuing something from the ruins. I had the good fortune, together with the Hon. Member for Ports mount, West (Mr. Judd), as a member of the Select Committee, to visit both India and Pakistan not much more than a year ago to look at the way in which the British aid programme was working out. In general, the picture that we had of our performance was reasonably satisfactory, and I was proud to see what we were able to do in so many different respects in both countries. In the present situation, there are two separate but related problems. There is, first, the situation in East Pakistan itself, and then there is the growing refugee problem over the border in India. As to the situation in East Pakistan, it serves no useful purpose to moralize about how things went wrong after the recent elections, or whether the Awami League's bid for secession was wise, or whether the central Government of Pakistan are responsible for grave injustice and oppression. What is clear to me now-and what was clear to my colleagues and me when we went to India and Pakistan-is that both problems are too big to be solved by those countries alone. If the debate serves any useful purpose, it will be to make the point that the situation with which these countries are grappling is too big for them to solve by themselves. This is no reflection on either country. It is just an unhappy fact. To those who have gone there in recent years, Pakistan presents a strange contradiction. West Pakistan is one of the successes of the developing world. It has made notable economic progress, and has achieved a real breakthrough in the production of food and an improvement in the standard of living. On the other hand, we could not fail to notice that East Pakistan was heading for sheer economic disaster. Mr. Frank Judd (Portsmouth, West): Hear, hear, Mr Braine: One must make this absolutely plain. In East Pakistan some 70 million people are crammed into 56000 square miles. The rate of population growth is such that these numbers will double, unless by some miracle they are checked, within the next 30 years. West Pakistan has space, it has potential, and it has hope. Flying over East Pakistan, however, one could not see an inch of uncultivated or empty land. The average size of a holding was one to one and a half acres. Unemployment and under employment had reached massive proportions. I am talking about the situation which existed 18 months before the present disturbances. Malnutrition was widespread. I have never seen such appalling poverty. I shall never forget the feverish-eyed, undernourished ricketlegged children holding out their begging bowls. I have never seen anything like that in Africa or elsewhere, That is why I say that Pakistan is faced with problems that are too big for it to solve alone, and if this debate serves any useful purpose at all it is to show that we are willing to
