St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It is no wonder that the West Pakistan military tried to conceal its actions in East Pakistan last weekend by rounding up foreign news correspondents at gunpoint and expelling them from the country. Reports now becoming available are to the effect that tanks and incendiary weapons were used in Dacca to crush the East Pakistan home-rule movement; it is said that some 7000 Bengalis armed only with knives and bamboo sticks were slaughtered.

The United States must share the guilt in this atrocity. The tanks were American built, furnished as part of well over two billion dollars in military aid given to Pakistan in return for its willingness to ally itself with United States objectives. Giant transport planes supplied by the United States carried the troops used in the suppression.

This is not the first time Pakistanis have misused American assistance. Ever since the arming of Pakistan was begun in the 1950s India has claimed that its neighbor would employ the weapons against India; to protect itself India was forced to spend scarce development funds on arms. In 1965 India's fears were realized when Pakistan used-its American arms against India in the struggle over Kashmir.

The massacre in Dacca, which may turn out to have been worse than reported, is another example of how arms given by the United States to an "ally" are used to maintain a dictatorship regime in power. India, which has a large Bengali minority, has appealed to the United Nations to take action to help relieve the suffering in East Pakistan. It is the government in West Pakistan that ought to show humanitarianism, and the first thing it could do, if it is not too ashamed, would be to make all the facts available.