by attacking India in Kashmir and the Indian Punjab; (3) China may deliver an ultimatum to India' (similar to the one she delivered in October of 1965 toward the end of the East Pakistan war); (4) the Soviet Union then supports the Indian position and wards China off, and the escalation continues.
This scenario may be dismissed by many as a bed dream. In my opinion it is a very real possibility, and if the situation continues to drift, a probability.
Mrs. Gandhi's governments acted responsibly in its banding of the crisis on its northeast border, but the financial and political pressures are rapidly pushing India to the breaking point.
The world community through the United Nations channel, by direct initiative or any other means must act. What is happening in Last Pakistan is an immoral and humanitarian outrage which must be condemned and stopped. At the same time India must be relieved of the responsibility for the care of the six million refugees. This long-suffering struggling, democratic country which a few months ago seemed about to achieve economic self-sufficiency must not be allowed to suffer, perhaps go under. because of a situation not of its own making.
It is reported in the press that members of the Consortium and the World Bank with the exception of the United States have agreed to stop economic aid to Pakistan until a political understanding is reached with East Pakistan and the East Pakistanis are assured their full share.
Since the outbreak of the struggle in East Pakistan in late March the United States - has shipped there cargoes of military equipment to Pakistan that can only be used against her own people in East Pakistan or against India. This step has been taken despite a solemn assurance to Congress that no arms would be sent. It was first accepted as just another bureaucratic blunder which did not represent United States policy. However, in the last few days there is evidence this was not an accident but a deliberate decision.
If this is in fact correct the United States, once again, has committed an abysmal error in Asia, one that historians may find even more difficult to condone or excuse than the debacle in Indochina.
Chester Bowles, author of “promises to Keep” was Ambassador to India 1963-69.
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