Already the severed halves of Pakistan take different routes, need different prescriptions for survival. West Pakistan, with surprising speed and purpose, has booted Yahya into oblivion and given Mr. Bhutto the power he hungered after so long and so transparently. Now he needs time for quiet, measured reconstruction, a time without Big Power pressure. In the East, by contrast, constant intervention may be the only path away from turmoil. Bangladesh lacks a leadership. It lacks administrative expertise. Its industries, roads, and rail ways lie shattered. All it has is people, millions upon millions, and an infinite capacity for merited despair, the desperation which brings, bloodshed in train.

Mr. Bhutto’s situation, obviously, is comparatively simple. He possesses some kind of democratic mandate. He has no immediate worries about the army - a cowed, discredited force in the land. Though Pakistan will suffer for losing the East, it can also gain political cohesion and develop a more rational economy. Talk of eternal war (not to mention Dacca returning to the fold by some curious act of mass Bengali will) is inevitable, but may not mean much more than that the new President wants an obfuscatory month or so to change tack. Keen Bhutto watchers have never thought of him as, essentially, democrat (and his decision to become President rather than Prime Minister raises niggling fear on that score, too), but he knows continued confrontation with New Delhi will entail continued army influence over every decision he takes. The only way to get the military off his back will be (from sense as well as self-interest) to steer the new Pakistan industrialised development and a better sharing of wealth to make the army less important to mass hopes and fears.

Only in one respect can Bhutto affect the course of Bangladesh, but it is a vital respect. Report after report from Dacca speaks of chaotic drift of meek leaders standing by helpless while revengeful gangs roam the streets. Every commentator agrees that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman alone has a chance of reversing this drift. But how many weeks must pass before Sheikh Mujib goes home? Mrs. Gandhi and the Awami Leaguers have both signalled their intention of using Pakistan’s prisoners of war as a bargaining counter. Mr. Bhutto has left himself an escape hatch or two. But the pace of events will be crucial here. Each day wasted makes the task of rallying Bangladesh more daunting.

Delay, in every sense, is East Bengal’s prime enemy now. Delay in organising enough Indian patrols to bring temporary peace to the cities. Delay in setting up a proper bureaucratic machine, World delay in recognition and aid. Russia, China, America and the Western nations played disparate roles at the birth of Bangladesh - roles few of them can feel proud about. There will be temptations to let ensuing problems slide for a while, to say that this was Mrs. Gandhi’s baby that she must bear the gloom as well as the glory. Some of these temptations come uncomfortably close to the truth; Mrs. Gandhi was, indeed, repeatedly warned that Bengal might not be freed on the battlefield; friendly nations continually told her that Indian generals in Dacca would not make nine million refugees go home. Nevertheless, the deed is done now. While tens of thousands leave the camps for their independent homeland, millions more linger fearfully in appalling poverty. They did not make the war. Nor, except by voting, did the huge majority of East Pakistanis. Their plight is urgent at this moment than ever before, and simpler only in one respect: that by putting Bangladesh in business the world can reach to the heart of the matter.