পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৮২

54 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড mass famine which will assuredly come in a few months if the major rice crop, the socalled Aman crop, is not planted during the pre monsoon period. This crop is responsible for 60 to 70 per cent, of the total rice produced in East Bengal and, if it is not planted, it cannot be harvested towards October and November. The famine which would then come would probably be equal in its disastrous effects to the famine which took place in 1943. We should concern ourselves with several aspects of the problem. The first requirement is to give massive aid to assist the refugee camps set up by the Indian authorities. Here, I wish to say how much the relief organizations have appreciated the sympathetic and understanding way in which the Foreign Secretary responded to the appeal for aid which we made to him. As a result of his warmth of response and speed of re-action, we were able to send a plane-load of supplies out donated mainly by War on Want, Oxfam and Christian Aid. But that aid, although it is appreciated, is but a drop in the ocean of what is required to deal with the millions who have crossed the border. I received to-day a telegram sent from Calcutta yesterday by the Rev. John Hastings, a minister in Calcutta who has been devoting himself for many years to relief work in Calcutta itself and who is now concerned with assisting in the camps. He says: "Everybody most grateful to donors and Foreign Secretary for consignment of tents and supplies. Official refugee count is West Bengal 1.8 million; India as a whole 2.5 million. Shelter for well over 1 million is still highest priority". He points out that, although the refugee problem has to be dealt with, we should concern ourselves also with the problem in East Bengal: "We shall be suspected of avoiding the real issue if we stop at refugee service." First, then, the refugee camps: there must be massive assistance. Here, the United Nations intervention, although a little slow in coming, is to be welcomed. Let the United Nations set up a £100 million fund not only to provide aid specifically for the refugees in the camps but also for their resettlement across the border as soon as that can be done. As for the situation in East Bengal itself and the prospect of famine in a few months, let the United Nations agencies now begin contingency planning to enable the world to act if disaster threatens in that way. I come now to some of the political points which have been raised in the debate, and I take issue immediately with some of the remarks of the Hon. Member for Torquay (Sir F. Bennett) and his Hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, South. The Hon. Member for Torquay said that Sheikh Mujib Rahman had accepted during the election that there were certain legal requirements for the continuation of a united country, and it was only after the election that he went on to promote a separatist philosophy. The Hon. Gentleman asserted that the six points were not in line with the legal framework which Sheikh Mujib Rahman agreed before the election. The Hon. Gentleman is completely wrong in what he said. I have here an extract from Keesing's Contemporary, Archives for 6th February which shows that the Awami League