The reported build‐up of Indian and Pakistani forces along the borders of both East and West Pakistan adds urgency to the warning of a New Delhi official that “there is a smell of war in the air.” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who has so far managed to restrain Indian hawks, indicated mounting frustration in an interview this week in which she termed the situation “quite grave.”

Although neither Government can rationally want war, the massing of forces greatly enhances the danger conflict through miscalculation. This is especially true along the East Pakistan frontier, where the advent the dry season this month invites sharply increased activity by Bengali guerrillas, operating from sanctuaries in India.

What United Nations Secretary General Thant called a “potential” threat to peace last August has become too imminent a peril to be longer ignored by the world organization. The source of the trouble is clearly the continuing military repression in East Pakistan which has already sent more than nine million refugees into India. Despite President Yahya Khan's promise of amnesty and the restoration of political life in the eastern province, the refugee flow continues at the staggering rate of 30,000 a day and is expected to total twelve million by the end ,of the year—roughly the equivalent of the total flow, in both directions after the division ‘of, India and Pakistan in 1947.

Sources inside East Pakistan indicate that mass political arrests Continue and that the army is pressing its policy of harsh reprisals against “miscreants,” especially the Hindu minority in East Bengal. The imprisonment and secret trial of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the Bengali leader, and the suppression of his Awami League, which swept the election in East Pakistan last December, make a farce‐of the new elections President Yahya has called.

So far, United Nations intervention has been confined to inadequately financed humanitarian efforts to alleviate the sufferings of the refugees in India and of the other victims of Pakistan's civil strife who remain in East Bengal. But it is increasingly apparent that no real relief can come without an end to the repression and to Pakistan's political crisis.

To prevent this man‐made catastrophe from becoming compounded in a wider Indo‐Pak war, it is essential that the U.N. come to grips with the central problem—the suppression of human rights in East Pakistan. As first step, the Security Council might empower the Secretary ‘General to send a fact‐finding mission into East Pakistan and to the refugee camps in India to check conflicting Pakistani and Indian claims about what has been happening in the Bengali region of Pakistan. If the Indians are sincere about seeking peaceful resolution they should welcome an, impartial investigation which would focus a world, spotlight on the explosive problems of “Bangla Desh.”