পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/২৩৪

2 O 2 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ৮২. আমরা সাহায্য করতে পারি তবে নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস ১৯ আগষ্ট, ১৯৭১ অস্ত্র দিয়ে নয় THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1971 We Can Help-But Without Arms A Total Solution, However, Is Not Without Our Grasp By John Kenneth Galbraith Cambridge, Mass.-I have been reluctant in these last months to speak to the political problems of East Bengal. All of us who have served in India are thought to be partisans of that country as doubtless on occasions we have been. Like others I have wondered if political discussion might divert attention from the terribly urgent problem of helping to provide sustenance for the refugees. But such is the component of disaster in our Present policy that 1 feel compelled to stress a few of the fundamentals in this ghastly situation. In any considerations of the Bengal tragedy, four factors are controlling. I list them: The immediate aspects of the refugee problem are urgent and grave and every effort at alleviation must be made. But there can be on tolerable solution which does not allow these people to return to their home villages and land. That this vast number of people- approaching in total the number displaced by World War Il-should remain indefinitely in camps or in the crowded adjacent provinces of India is so cruel as to be unthinkable. The refugees will return only to a peaceful and secure country. Both the overwhelming vote for autonomy earlier this year and the events since make it certain that East Pakistan cum East Bengal will only be peaceful if full autonomy and selfgovernment are accorded to it. Continued administration from Islamabad will be under conditions of open or suppressed revolt and the refugees will not return. Autonomy and self-government arc also wanted as the vote showed by the people who have not fled and, a most important point, autonomy and self-government of East Pakistan are essential for West Pakistan as well. By itself West Pakistan is a highly viable community with a higher potential for economic growth than India. As military rulers of the more numerous Bengalis and with the associated expenditure it will be ruined. What is worse the armed forces of West Pakistan and the Punjabis. Pathans and the other communities that comprise them will continue to be featured in the world press as cruel and oppressive men. They are anything but that but this is the reputation than any pacifying army, not excluding our own in Vietnam, invariably acquires. A military solution by India would further embitter relations between the two nations of the subcontinent. And it would be greatly disenchanting to all who, as friends of India, cherish the Gandhian dislike of such measures.