পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫৯০

558 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড of both countries, it is difficult to see how else the situation could have developed because of the Pakistan government's determination to hold onto East Pakistan at any COSÍ. 'ალ | BRITISH PRESS REVIEW ON INDIA AND PAKISTAN 12th December, 1971 by Basil Clarke In Britain today, the Sunday newspapers include four editorials about the war between India and Pakistan. The editorials are concerned with the future-what is going to happen now they all ask. Three of the newspapers, The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and The people are concerned with the future in terms of how Bangladesh is to develop. While the Observer looks at the future in terms of the consequences of the war on the whole structure of foreign relations throughout the world. The observer assumes that the Indian Army will soon complete the conquest of East Pakistan, and that when it has done so. it will install there a government of an independent Bangladesh. The only things that could prevent this, says The Observer, is the intervention of China or even more improbably, the United states and this the paper feels is very unlikely. The Observer says that however illegal India's action in dismembering a state which is a fellow member of the United Nations, it has to be accepted that the starting point for any stable peace settlement must be self determination for the people of East Pakistan. This, the paper says, may bring a stable situation in the short term, but in the long term, its consequences for the rest of the world could be far reaching. The paper picks out three specific consequences. First the war has shown that the capacity of the great powers to influence events is severely limited. In fact, the war has highlighted the fact that Russia Chinese rivalry in Asia could emerge as the new cold war of the seventies. Secondly, says The Observer, India has shown like Israel did before, that it's possible for a medium or small power to wage war successfully on its own, provided the great powers don't interfere. Finally The Observer looks at the consequence of the war for the relationship between Russia and the United States. The other three editorials are concerned with what is to happen in Bangladesh. Will Bangladesh become an Indian puppet state? asks the Sunday Times. How long will the Indian army have to stay there? What kind of political life can be reconstructed? The Sunday Times feels that all these questions must be answered, before there is any possibility of British recognition. But the answers to these questions will also raise new problems says The Sunday Times. For example if self determination was right for Bangladesh, then it is right for Kashmir as well. The Sunday Times also stresses the dangers of the situation for the relationship between America Russia and China. The paper says that although the liquidation of East Pakistan has rationalized geography, it will not be a stabilizing event, for the victory is not merely India's but Russia's. This means that even more than before, China is interested in the future of Bangladesh. Moreover the Americans will be anxious to recover from what the paper calls their pro-Pakistani declarations and maintain their influence in the area. Sunday Times concludes that although the great powers have kept their distances from the battlefield, the war has meant that a new area of great sensitivity has been exposed between Suez and Saigon.