SIR ALEC DOUGLAS-HOME. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Kinross and West Perthshire. C.). opening a debate on the relief situation in India and Pakistan, said that immediately and urgently the task was to save as many people as possible from the fate which had struck them and the diseases which threatened them and therefore to get relief where it was needed as quickly as might be.

The priorities were in this order: the relief of immediate suffering in East Pakistan and among the millions of refugees in Indria, to be followed very soon, although this was in the hands of others, by the creation of a political framework within which civil government could be restored and which would give confidence to the majority of the refugees to return home.

On the immediate relief of suffering the Government’s view had been that it was right for the bulk of the aid to go through the United Nations.

A permanent organization to cope with disaster relief would be an improvement on present arrangements. That was why he proposed to the Secretary General of the United Nations last February that something on these lines should be established, and it had been established, at any rate in embryo. He hoped that the structure could be retained on a permanent basis.

The United Nations were not immediately short of money, but the Government were ready to do substantially more as soon as they could assess the need and the opportunities unfolded. They had been pressing the Pakistan Government to open up the East to an international relief effort and as soon as the way was open would make a contribution to this also.

There must be a return to normal civil life and a restoration of confidence and security for the individual before long-term reconstruction and development could continue.

He could understand the impatience of those who felt that the new political structure for East Pakistan should already be on the way. The Government had impressed upon the President and his advisers that this was the only hope for the future of his country. They believed that the President personally desired a return to civil government, and was actively working for it.

A plan must be launched for a now political structure which would attract East Pakistani cooperation and it should be launched with as little delay as possible.

To compound the problem facing everybody in this subcontinent, a new chapter had started in the long history of tension between Pakistan and India. The Government of India had exercised great restraint— (labour cheers)—and the British Government were certain that this would continue. Otherwise the danger of war between Pakistan and India would be very real and would convert what was already a tragedy into a catastrophe.

The only action which would end the tragedy and reverse the river of refugees was a settlement contrived, agreed and worked by Pakistanis themselves.

That is why (he continued) we are so anxious that the President should announce, as soon as he possible can, a return to a civil administration. That alone will offer hope to the people of East Pakistan.

MRS HART (Lanark. Lab) said they saw a certain lack, not of effort, but coordination of effort. Two months after the went there' had been this unendurable delay before things swung into action.

It was the voluntary bodies which had the expertise, skill, knowledge, and experience for dealing with this kind of international disaster and they could do a superb job. These bodies must not feel limited by anxiety as to who would pay the bill, it would be belter if Sir A. Douglas-Home were to pledge a much more generous sum to, remove anxiety that money was the limiting factor.

She hoped the Government would give an assurance that they were not going shortly to find there was another disaster, that of famine, which they wore still not ready to meet after all this forewarning.

She supported Sir A. Douglas-Home in his belief that there must be no further aid to Pakistan other than money for relief operations, until there were conditions of confidence and security and normal civil life.

There was now a real threat to international peace and the inter national community would be unwise to ignore the tensions.

MR LANE (Cambridge. C) said they should leave the Pakistan Government in no doubt of the revulsion of feeling in this country.

He hoped that events in East Pakistan would give impetus to the efforts to set up an international disaster organization.

DAME JOAN VICKERS (Plymouth. Devonport. C) said the incident concerning the Pakistan test cricket team and the signing of the cricket bat was unfortunate. There was a marvellous way for community relations to get the cricket bat signed by various people, and she hoped that the Pakistan High Commissioner might have second thoughts about it.

MR STONEHOUSE (Wednesbury. Lab) said there was surely a point at which the world community must say that this horror and barbarism bad passed the stage of no concern to the world at large.

It had been proposed that the Security Council should ask the Pakistan Government to allow a commission into East Pakistan to do something to return that country to administration and order. If the Pakistan Government did not accept that suggestion within the next week or so it was incumbent upon the United Nations to use pressures of every possible sort, including direct intervention, to stop this genocide continuing.

MR SHORE (Stepney. Lab) said a general who wanted to crush a democracy could do it without expelling five million people from his country. This was an overkill of brutality and violence of the kind they had not seen'the like of before.

MR THOMSON (Dundee, East. Lab) said Britain should give a lead, perhaps first of all consulting other members of the Commonwealth, in taking the initiative and invoking the good offices of the United Nations, not only on the relief side, but to deal with the implications of the tragedy for peace and security in Asia,

MR WOOD. Minister for Overseas Development (Bridlington. C), said the Government hoped that the General Assembly of the United Nations was going to approve in the autumn an effective system for the international coordination of relief.

The Foreign Secretary was convinced that a peaceful political settlement, which was the objective of a large number of MPs, was also the sincere objective of President Yahya Khan.

Il was not for Britain to dictate the kind of settlement, except that it must be acceptable to the population in the sense that it would lead back to the necessary stability which must exist before Britain could resume any constructive aid operation.

He was giving away no secrets when he said there had been communication between the British Government and the government of Pakistan about Shaikh Muijibur Rahman. He was afraid he could not give any further information than that.