Washington Daily News

The East Pakistan refugee problem is skyrocketing so drastically that the United States is increasing sevenfold its financial assistance program for Pakistani refugees in India.
The Bengali refugees who have fled the Pakistani army into India now total about five million. Each day between 50,000 and 100,000 new refugees arrive.
A dangerous epidemic of cholera has broken out with at least 3,000 dead already plus some 10,000 hospitalized.
The World Health Organization is scouring the world for millions of shots of anticholera vaccine.
The United States originally authorized $2.5 million for East Pakistan refugee relief earlier this spring. Of this amount $500,000 was in cash to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Yesterday the State Department announced an additional authorization of $15 million, of which $10 million will be spent for food and the other $5 million will be made available in cash to the U.N. High Commissioner.
The United States in also trying to mount an airlift to remove large numbers of refugees in the Tripura area of India, east of Dacca. It is an isolated area, difficult to supply and will be dangerous during the forthcoming monsoon season when much of the area—including the only road to it—will be flooded.
An American C-130 plane took off last Saturday from Pope AFB near Fayetteville, N.C., bound for Tripura. If the plane makes the trip in and out without difficulty, three other C-130 planes will join in an around-the-clock project to airlift• refugees out of that area to higher ground.
Neither the United States, India nor the U.N. High Commissioner has had much luck in efforts to get Pakistan to cease the repressions that provoke the continued flow of refugees into India.
If the present rate of refugees entering India continues, another 1.5 million to three million refugees will have fled Pakistan by the end of June.
India appealed to U.N. Secretary General Thant for help. U Thant in turn appealed to all U.N. members. Thus far, other countries have contributed $26 million.
The second largest contributor was the Soviet Union-100 million doses of smallpox vaccine valued at $2 million and 30,000 tons of rice worth $10 million.
Japan has contributed $3 million worth of rice and $1.4 million in milk powder and vitamin tablets. Canada has contributed $2 million in food, medicine and cash, and the United Kingdom $2.4 million in cash.
East Pakistanis in the cholera-stricken refugee camps in India, explain the noted absence of women aged 15 to 30, this way: They were taken by West Pakistan troops for purposes of rape or killing.