In the tragedy that is now engulfing the Indian subcontinent there is not much satisfaction in trying to pinpoint blame or identify warmongers. Pakistan has evoked worldwide condemnation for its repression of the freely elected government in East Pakistan, for the army’s brutality, and for its reluctance since to accept a radical political solution. India, in turn, has won worldwide sympathy for its burden of millions of refugees from Pakistan. Some of that sympathy has now been spent by India’s questionable decision, openly to use force in East Pakistan. The ultimate justification for it is presumably that, given no interference from outside, India will win and there will be an independent and orderly state of East Bengal. In fact, the more likely outcome is disintegration and chaos, with further suffering on a vast scale.

The best hope remains, as it has all along, in the release of Sheikh Mijibur Rahman, the democratically elected leader of East Bengal. It might still be possible for Islamabad to evolve with Mujib a system of autonomy which would enable the refugees to begin to return; Yahya Kahn himself would robably have to acknowledge the bankruptcy of his politics by handing over to someone else. There will, in the end, be no real substitute for direct contact between New Delhi and Islamabad.

gut that prospect is a blur on a bloody horizon. The priority is to get the fighting stopped first. The only resort that has not yet been tried is the Security Council. With China now a member, a discussion there of the India-Pakistan conflict may provoke more verbal fireworks than any resolve to stop the war. But the attempt in the UN must urgently be made. Even if more in hope than conviction, Britain should take the initiative.