An unprecedented move by British MPssh MPs

May 1, 1971

Faced with growing pressures among British MPs of all parties for intervention in Bangladesh war, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, British foreign secretary, took a direct initiative to obtain international support to at least get urgent relief supplies into Bangladesh. He held confidential talks with U Thant, United Nations secretary-general, when he passed through London last week, and he discussed the problem with the US Secretary of State William Rogers.

Sir Alec was known to feel very strongly about the tragedy of the Bangalees, but was anxious not to disrupt Britain's good relations with General Yahya Khan's government.

An unprecedented group of nearly 300 British MPs, covering the spectrum of political opinion from the Rev Ian Paisley and Sir Gerald Nabarro on the right to Andrew Faulds and Ian Mikardo on the left, backed a motion to use all its influence to secure a cease-fire in Bangladesh. The motion was introduced by Bruce Douglas-Mann, Labour MP for North Kensington, who had just returned from a visit to India and the rebel headquarters of Bangladesh. It would be debated in the Commons on 14 May.

An urgent appeal for British relief was made in a cable to the World Council of Churches from Rev John Hastings of Calcutta Urban Service Consortium, who had just returned from an extensive visit to the outlying parts of Bangladesh. He estimated that almost a million Bangalee refugees had crossed the frontier into India and thought that the number could rapidly increase to two million. Over 60 per cent of the refugees were Muslims.

War on Want and Oxfam both launched campaigns for massive funds to assist the refugees. The first British relief plane to Calcutta would leave London on May 4. Although British relief organisations still hold £1,500,000 of the funds raised at the time of the flood disasters in the Bengal delta, they had been told by the commissioner of charities that this money could be used only in that area.

ABU SYED CHOUDHURY BANGLADESH'S UN ENVOY

The Bangladesh government appointed Justice Abu Syed Choudhury, the senior-most judge of Dhaka High Court and vice chancellor of Dhaka University, its emissary at the United Nations. Justice Choudhury, now in London, had been abroad attending, ironically, a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission when the Pakistan army commenced the savage attack on unarmed civilians in Bangladesh. The directive to Justice Choudhury from the Bangladesh government was to present the case on behalf of the government to all member states and to the secretariat of the United Nations and help create a lobby in favour of the people now fighting for freedom. 

SOVIET UNION CONDEMNS PAKSTAN'S POLICY

The Russians for the first time officially condemned Pakistan's policy in Bangladesh. Pravda expressed skepticism about official Pakistani claims of stability in the rebel territory. It reflected the grave concern felt in high Russian official circles that the tragedy of Bangladesh could lead to a larger conflict between India and Pakistan, with possible involvement of China, and warned that continuing bloodshed not only harmed the interests of the Pakistani people but "also harms the cause of peace in Asia and all over the world".

Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at [email protected]