A month after the military crackdown in East Pakistan, absenteeism by Bengali workers is still crippling the economy, according to well‐in formed travelers who were in East and West Pakistan this week.

The information reaching New York indicates that the Government in West Pakistan is feeling a financial strain it self as a result of the rapid spending of foreign exchange and the hesitancy of foreign aid donors.

At Chittagong, the main East Pakistani shipping center, only 2,000 of the 15,000 port workers are said to be on the job, and the authorities are having to divert shipping all the way to Karachi, in the west.

The travelers reported that only half the workers and employees in the East Pakistani capital, Dacca, were back on the job, although the Pakistani Government has been saying for weeks that life was returning to normal there.

Financial Resources Strained

Many workers are thought to have taken refuge in the countryside for fear of the Pakistani Army and Air Force.

At any event, the travelers said that the Pakistani Government could ill afford the effort to hold the East. They said well‐placed economists in West Pakistan had reported that Pakistan's foreign exchange holdings were now even less than the $80‐million that has been unofficially reported; and the country was said to be spend $20‐million in foreign exchange each month.

The foreign exchange problem is compounded by hesitancy on the part of foreign aid donors in view of the crisis in the East. The United States has indefinitely put off signing an $80‐million commodity loan agreement, and the consortium of aid donor countries that regulates the over‐all extent of the aid to Pakistan has not even publicly set a date for its meeting this year.

Given all its problems, the Pakistani Government is widely expected to turn increasingly to China for assistance, the travelers reported. And China has shown a disposition to help — through Premier Chou Enlai's public declaration of support for the Pakistani administration in Islamabad and through its emergency shipment of newsprint to offset the cut ting off of newsprint shipments from East to West Pakistan.

If further Chinese military aid is being supplied, its presence has not been disclosed.

The travelers reported a wide spread feeling in. West Pakistan's business community that if and when the West Pakistanis do decide to go it alone, they can survive economically, —although severe retrenchment would be necessary, notably in the size of the army.

As for the East Pakistani economy, there was reported to have been little permanent damage done to plants and factories and agriculture, although the railroad and riverboat systems are said to be disrupted and the army has commandeered many of the region's trucks.

The travelers reported that from all indications the military Government of President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan had firmly dug in its heels and was now, at least, intent on maintaining its hold on the East. But they said there were some signs of ferment within the armed forces.

Bengali pilots from East Pakistan have long since been grounded, Bengali officers relieved of sensitive jobs and Bengali sailors put under close surveillance.

In addition, there are re ports that tenant farmers in some provincial areas of West Pakistan have been refusing to pay their rents. Critics of the Government contend that this shows that the authority of the West Pakistani Establishment has been weakened in general by the crisis in the East, but whether this is so is not yet clear.

‘He Is No Nasser’

At any rate, the travelers reported that President Yahya appeared to retain his primacy within the miltary government, although one observed, “He is no Nasser.”

At present the President was said to be convinced that he had chosen the proper course in dealing with the East, but the travelers said there were many Western observers in West Pakistan who felt that time would prove, even to him, that he had been wrong.

There are persistent though unconfirmed reports that the Pakistani armed forces have used napalm to cow rebel Bengalis, but these have not been confirmed. Similarly there are continuing though unconfirmed reports that more army and police reinforcements have been sent from West to East Pakistan.