The eastern wing of Pakistan, much the more populous, won national elections last December and began moving peaceably to take over national power. The western wing, which has dominated and exploited the East since Moslem Pakistan was carved out of British India in 1947, correctly perceived the threat and-rather than surrender power- stalled. Talks were begun to see if a constitutional formula could be devised to allow the East autonomy within an all-Pakistan federation. It is not clear whether the power brokers of the West feared that the talks were failing, or succeeding; at any rate, without notice or armed provocation, last Friday they opened fire with machine guns, recoilless rifles and tanks against the largely unarmed-or heavily outgunned citizenry of East Pakistan. Evidently thousands were killed; the number can only be estimated because the government at once imposed censorship and expelled all foreign correspondents, confiscating their notes and film.

The government of West Pakistan claims control of Dacca in the East; there is no reason to doubt that it does control in a military sense the territory within the firing range of its high-powered guns. However, for it to claim any meaningful measure of political loyalty among the 75 million people of East Pakistan has become absurd. Previously, moderate opinion in Dacca seemed inclined to regional autonomy within a Pakistan federation. Now it appears that moderates have been stilled and political sentiment has swung behind demands for full independence for "Bangladesh" -the words mean Bengal nation. Already separated from the Bengals by a thousand miles of Indian territory and a distinct culture and language, the Punjabis of the West have widened the gulf with blood. At this point the form of Bengali resistance cannot be predicted with any certainty; the fact can (*****).

For outsiders, the spectacle in Pakistan affords further evidence of the essential irrelevance of the anti-Communist impulses which led the United States to arm and aid Pakistan for so many years. Clearly the real threat to such a country lies within: in the ancient antagonisms of its people and in the toils of modernization. American arms are again being used by a recipient government against what it claims to be its own citizens. That is deplorable. But the real tragedy is Pakistan's own.