পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৬৩

ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড on the basis either of fighting it out or of accepting the legal framework and reaching a compromise, The people of Pakistan are intensely proud. They are well aware that theirs is a wholly independent country in the Commonwealth. They are also aware that their difficulties have been caused in part by Britain, which was responsible for the creation of the country. We must be extremely careful not to make the situation worse by attempting to bring influence to bear, or even, however well meaningly, moralizing in this House. I want to try to end the misery, and not merely make points blaming one side or the other. I have sedulously avoided doing that. Immediately the Government of one State appears to interfere in the affairs of another nation State, the result is nearly always counterproductive. A Pakistani asked me the other day how we in this House would feel if one of the first debates in the newly-elected Pakistan legislature were aimed at using its best influences to end the trouble in Northern Ireland. That may not seem to be a parallel to us, but it does to the Pakistanis. The same would apply to the French in Canada. The Federal Government in Canada are always careful to rebut outside influence. We saw what happened with General de-Gaulle's interference, and the trouble that that caused in Quebec. If we want to help, we must not take up sides. We must concentrate on giving the maximum aid. If any initiative of ours suggests in any way that we are trying to interfere, we shall make matters worse. I understand that there is a real prospect if the present increasing calm develops in East Pakistan, that the President of Pakistan seems to be inclined to call together the provincial assemblies of both the East and the West. If and when that moment arrives, it seems to be well on the cards that there will be no need for fresh elections but that the points in the legal framework will be carried out and maintained by the members who were elected for the Awami League in the provincial assembly. If that happens, it will be a good start to the restoration of normality in the country. I have already said what we can do to help. The way to do it is not by cutting aid or by any form of sanctions. We must increase our aid and ensure that it goes in full measure to East Pakistan. I welcome the idea of an initiative by the Commonwealth Secretariat, because that was a chance of doing what no independent country in the Commonwealth could achieve. I hope that we shall support that concept. I can see a very good case, too, for British Members of Parliament who are genuinely interested in the situation going there. There are grounds for thinking that Pakistan has it in mind to encourage such a visit from this country before long on a non-party basis. However, if that initiative should come about, the worst possible move would be for the visiting Members of Parliament to go first to India and then to East Pakistan. In view of the undoubted tensions over Kashmir, and so on, any visit to India must be a separate initiative. The same group of Members of Parliament must not first visit India and then cross to East Pakistan. If that were to happen, any positive good would be undone. The events in East Pakistan arc appalling. I am passionately convinced that the more that we try to heal the wounds, not deliver strictures, the greater the service that we shall do not only to East Pakistan but to the security of Asia as a whole.