The British Parliamentary Delegation to East Bengal led by Mr. Arthur Bottomley, Labour MP for Middlesbrough East left Dacca for Calcutta yesterday in a frustrated and gloomy mood.

He had spent some hours in a vain attempt to visit Boliadi, a village 15 miles north of Dacca, which was destroyed at dawn on Sunday morning by the West Pakistan Army.

For reasons not yet explained six villages have recently been razed to the ground in this area, to the north of the small industrial town of Tongi, and firing can still be heard there.

Mr. Toby Jessel, Conservative MP for Twickenham, com-menting to the British Press, said: “The reign of terror which has been imposed here is not conducive to the restoration of ‘the economic life of the country”.

Drawing on his experiences with the fact-finding mission during the past four days Mr. Jessel said the disappearance of local people and the sacking of village add to the great fear Bengalis already have of the Pakistani Army.

“TRIGGER-HAPPY”

“The generals must stop the trigger-happy and arbitrary actions of many units,” he said. “I could not put my hand on my heart and recommend anyone to return to Pakistan if they were Hindu or had any connection with Awami League”.

“Indeed I doubt whether it is safe for anyone to return to East Pakistan from India with the Army in its present mood.”

One step towards restoring confidence might be, said Mr. Jessel, the replacement of Lt.-Gen. Tikka Khan in the post of Military Governor by a soldier who knew something of how to win the hearts and minds of Bengalis.

Mr. Jessel claimed the Pakistani authorities were trying to “have it both ways” by their emphatic statements that the Feni bridge between Dacca and Chittagong was destroyed by Indian officers coming from across the border.

At the same time they razed to the ground scores of villages near the bridge because they had harboured Bangla Desh guerrillas.

Mr. Reginald Prentice, Labour MP for East Ham North,, though not so forthright, said he toured the Barisal area in the delta on Sunday last, and order was not yet restored, although he had heard an impressive weight of reports of repressive army action against nearby villages.

Mr. Bottomley told the local Press that “they had seen many terrible things.” The RAF Hercules aircraft, carrying the delegation from Dacca to Calcutta was yesterday forbidden to enter Indian air space. It took a quarter of an hour of radio exchanges between the crew and ground control in Calcutta before the aircraft was allowed to land.