From Our Correspondent
Ottawa. Oct 20
Mr Alexei Kosygin, the Soviet Prime Minister, told Canadian MPs and senators in Ottawa that “acts of war are very possible between India and Pakistan”. He claimed that Russia was doing everything it could but added: “The situation is becoming more and more aggravated arid more and more acute”.

He disclosed that Mr Podgorny. the Soviet President, had demanded of President Yahya Khan of Pakistan—when they met last week at the Iranian celebrations—the restoration of democracy in East Pakistan, the freeing of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman and arrangements for the return of refugees from India.

Mr Kosygin's concern for the situation became evident when he told the meeting that although both President Yahya and Mrs Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, had said they would not attack first “it doesn't really matter who does it first, merely that it shouldn't happen at all”.

Appearing before & joint meeting of the Commons-Senate external affairs committee. Mr Kosygin was questioned about the position of Jews in the Soviet Union. He replied that many Jews held senior positions and that Jews were free to rise through the hierarchy.

If Irish Catholics were as well treated in Northern Ireland, he suggested, there would be no trouble in Northern Ireland. He wondered why Canadian parliamentarians were expressing outrage at the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union but said nothing about the position of Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland.

As a mark of the increasing cooperation between Canada and the Soviet Union an agreement facilitating scientific, technical, educational and cultural exchanges was signed today by Mr Kosygin and Mr Pierre Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister.

From the Canadian point of view, the agreement, in preparation for several months, will give Canada special access to the Soviet Union in many fields in which it has been difficult to deal with the Russians in the past.

Only a few hours before the signing, Mr Kosygin had found ready ears for his sharp criticism of the United States for its new economic policies, which he suggested had unfairly dislocated world trade and caused unemployment in other countries. We blamed America's economic difficulties on its involvement in the Vietnam War.

Countries engaged in international trade naturally wanted it to be conducted on a stable footing and to expand as the countries economies grew, he said at a luncheon.

“This means, of course, that it must be based on a stable system of exchange rates, on a system that does not compel some countries to pay for it by slowing down their economic development, by curtailing their commercial operations, by increasing unemployment on account of the economic miscalculations of others.”

Mr Kosygin’s friendly words are a distinct contrast to the warnings and threats that Ottawa feels have been directed at it from Washington over the 10 per cent surcharge.

Mr Geza Matrai, the Hungarian refugee who is said to have attacked Mr Kosygin on Monday in Ottawa, is standing tomorrow as a candidate for the right-wing Social Credit Party in the Ontario provincial elections. Ironically, he is campaigning on a platform denouncing “the breakdown in discipline in Ontario schools.” He has been changed with common assault.

Havana. Oct 20.— Mr Kosygin will arrive in Cuba next Tuesday for a “friendship” visit, it was officially announced here today. It is four years since he was in Cuba as guest of Dr Fidel Castro. — Reuter.