পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫২৮

496 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড party debate in that it was proposed by an opposition backbencher and supported by the government spokesmen the minister for overseas development. So it is not possible to judge the concern of the House merely by counting the number of MP's who attended the debate. In facet the attendance was thin. But the debate lasted 5 hours, there were a large number of speakers, and from the opposition benches four former ministers spoke, The motion expressed the Houses deep concern at the recent events in East Pakistan and caned on the British government to use its influence to secure and end to the strife to get international relief organizations admitted to East Pakistan and achieve a democratic political settlement in the province. The first thing that has to be said about the debate is that most speakers accepted that the events in East Pakistan were the internal concern of the Government of Pakistan. Nevertheless they felt that there were ways in which the British Government could and should help. The main controversy was over aid. Mr. Bruce Douglas Mann who opened the debate had been to West Bengal at the end of last month and had crossed over the border into East Pakistan. He felt so strongly about what he saw that he wanted the British government to suspend all payments of aid to Pakistan or at least not to enter into any new aid agreements until the Pakistan army left the East wing. He believed that economic sanctions could in his world "Prevent this war continuing". Mr. Richard Wood, the Minister for Overseas Development said that the Government saw their aspects to the aid problem. He believed that immediate relief for the people of East Pakistan could best be provided by the United Nations. That was why the British Government had sent a message to the United Nations Secretary General urging him to get in touch with the Government of Pakistan to arrange for a United Nations Team to go into East Pakistan. Mr. Wood said that the second problem was aid for the refugees in West Bengal. He said that the Government had already helped British charities to fly in relief supplies to West Bengal and it hoped to do more when the needs became clearer. On long term aid to Pakistan the Minister was quite clear that he wanted to resume aid to Pakistan as soon as possible. But he said that it was the government's policy, to give the bulk of their aid for development work in East Pakistan and that it could not continue its aid programme until the situation in East Pakistan settled down. He profoundly disagreed however with any suggestion that aid should be used as a lever to force a particular political solution on the government of Pakistan. Mrs. Judith Hait who was Minister for Overseas Development in the last Labor government agreed that in general it was quite wrong to use aid as a lever. But she felt that there might be occasions when in the interests of peace and humanity governments had to exercise some influence through their aid policies. (Several speakers pointed out that withholding aid could harm the very people they were all so anxious to help-the people of East Pakistan.) Many of the speakers spoke about the need to help to preserve the unity of Pakistan. Mr. Dennis Healey, the former Defense Secretary, said that if Pakistan split there was a danger of anarchy which would threaten the stability of the whole subcontinent. On the other hand there were several speakers who felt that East Pakistan could survive on its own and that recent events had made it impossible for the two wings of Pakistan to live