Delhi, Nov 14
Mrs Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, is reported to have told her party colleagues today that India should give international leaders a last chance to resolve the crisis in East Pakistan before India takes unilateral action to preserve its economy and security.

Addressing the Cabinet political affairs committee this morning, 24 hours after returning from a protracted tour of the West. Mrs Gandhi said that the international community ought to be given the chance to persuade President Yahya Khan to initiate, within the next week or so, a realistic political solution in his eastern wing.

However, it is quite obvious by Mrs Gandhi’s tone and from the sudden flurry of political and military activity in India, that time is running out and a war is looming closer.

While declaring that India had nothing to lose by waiting for a “little time”, Mrs Gandhi is reported to have informed her party colleagues that if international leaders fail to provide a solution. India would be justified in taking steps to resolve the crisis to safeguard her national security.

Mrs Gandhi also left her colleagues with the impression that she was not optimistic that international initiatives will resolve the crisis. It is expected that she will declare an emergency within the next week but will only take this step after consulting the Opposition.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Mr Tajuddin Ahmed, the Prime Minister of the provisional Government of Bangla Desh, has arrived in Delhi on a secret mission. There is talk of an Indo-Bangla Desh friendship treaty being prepared, amounting in short to a defence pact.

If this report is correct then it is obvious that India intends to recognize the provisional Government in the near future and under the provisions of the treaty India would feel justified in marching into East Bengal on the invitation of the elected representatives of East Pakistan.

However, it is conceivable that the draft form of the treaty might only be prepared as a contingency measure if India finally decides to embark upon military action.

Representatives of the British Broadcasting Corporation have been meeting Indian Foreign Office officials in Delhi to negotiate conditions under which the corporation can resume operations in India.

Mr Oliver Whitley, managing director of the External Services of the BBC, and Mr Mark Dodd, head of the Eastern Services Division, met the officials yesterday to assess whether the Indian Government is prepared to lift the ban on the corporation imposed last year after the BBC screened a series of controversial documentary films by the French producer Louis Malle.

The Indians have not decided to lift the ban. but it is reported that the negotiations were held “in a friendly atmosphere” and it is likely that the BBC might be allowed to reopen its office in Delhi.

Delhi, Nov 14.—Mr Jagjivan Ram, the Indian Defence Minister, gave warning here today that “a giant conflagration might break out at any time”. At the same meeting, Mr N. M. Pegov, the Soviet Ambassador, underlined the significance of India’s friendship treaty with Russia and said it must not be ignored.

Indian observers interpreted Mr Ram's statement as meaning that not only could a war soon break out between India and Pakistan, but that the conflict would not necessarily be limited to those two countries.

Mr Pegov told the meeting, which was a conference on the subject “Nehru and economic cooperation with the socialist countries”, that attention must be paid to the situation created by the signing last August of the Soviet-Indian pact.

Since then he said, “nobody any longer can establish a policy, either towards the Soviet Union or towards India, without taking that treaty into consideration”.

There have been growing rumours of an increase in Soviet military aid to India. In fact, there has been no massive new aid from Moscow to Delhi—such as supplying the MiG 23 fighter to counter the French Mirage fighters of the Pakistan Air Force.

The state of emergency that might shortly be established would be a general mobilization of civil and military organizations.

The Ministry of Defence has reported that exchanges of artillery fire over the border with East Pakistan during the past 24 hours resulted in about 10 deaths on the Pakistan side.

A report by the Press Trust of India said Pakistan aircraft intruded into Indian air space at two points in the Jammu division of the western border. In the first incident, over Kathua anti-aircraft guns opened fire, but the Pakistan plane was not hit. Indian aircraft chased but did not catch another Pakistan aircraft that flew right over Jammu. —Agence France Presse.

Karachi, Nov 14.—Karachi citizens were today being advised to dig slit trenches as part of civil defence preparations and cinemas and television were screening other advice on air raid precautions.

A press notice said that in East Pakistan slit trenches should be dug immediately outside public buildings, by roadsides, and near parks and market places in all main towns.

Official advice on the precautions to be taken said that trenches should be W, L, or Y shaped but no arm should be longer than 10ft. It told how to distinguish between the alert and the all-clear sirens, gave details of blackout regulations and pointed to the need to switch off water, electricity and gas at the mains before taking shelter.—Reuter.