LONDON, Nov. 1—Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India charged today that the United States was taking a short‐term view of the crisis with Pakistan and warned that the influx of East Pakistani refugees had strained India beyond the breaking point.

“Every single day brings 30,000 to 40,000 more refugees with new tales of horror,” Mrs. Gandhi said at a packed luncheon news conference. “We will not tolerate them.”

Mrs. Gandhi, on a three‐week foreign tour, is spending five days in Britain to discuss the deteriorating situation between her country and Pakistan. In her talks with Prime Minister Heath, she has asked for British support to deter Pakistan from provoking open warfare with India.

Due in U.S. Tomorrow

Asked about her visit to the United States, starting Wednesday, and her talks with President Nixon, Mrs. Gandhi said: “I think the U.S. is talking a rather short‐term view of this situation. Perhaps this is be cause the countries involved are far from the West. But we are living with this horror from day to day—this exodus of millions of helpless people.”

Mrs. Gandhi has been critical in the past of the Nixon Administration's arms shipments to Pakistan and of Washington's refusal to criticize the Pakistani regime. For nearly seven months, the Pakistani Army, made up almost entirely of West Pakistanis, has been seeking to crush the Bengali separatists in East Pakistan.

At her news conference, and in speeches over the weekend, Mrs. Gandhi has said angrily that 9.5 million East Pakistani refugees in India pose a threat to her country's social, economic and political stability.

“People have been saying, ‘How long can you stand it?’ she said, “That date has long since passed. I feel I am sitting on the top of a volcano, and I honestly don't know when it is going to erupt. I honestly cannot prophesy what will hap pen or how we are going to deal with it.”

Demonstrators Outside

The luncheon today at the Savoy Hotel, sponsored by the Foreign Press Association in London, was guarded by plain clothes men and uniformed policemen. Outside the hotel, half a dozen Pakistani demonstrators carried placards reading: “Hands Off Pakistan,” and “Let My, People Go.”

Mrs. Gandhi remarked: “When I came here today, I saw demonstrators with signs saying ‘Why Are You Preventing the Refugees From Returning?’ That must be the joke of the year.”

Her visit here has so far yielded mixed results. Despite official sympathy in London, British officials have reservations about her contentions that there is no need for an Indian political initiative and that the East Pakistani problem is one to be solved by the Pakistani Government and elected representatives of East Pakistan. The British feel that Mrs. Gandhi will have to speak to Pakistan sooner or later.