Yahya Khan. Neither his handholding of nor any hidden leverage on the Pakistan regime has had evident effect in advancing a political solution in East Bengal. To an Indian Government that. in the face of moral and human outrage next door and of an outlandish refugee burden. was showing remarkable restraint until recently. Mr. Nixon offered mainly counsels of restraint. He supplied no moral support. Instead for months he continued to trickle arms to Pakistan like so much gasoline onto smouldering Indian passions. The President has been fully aware both of the explosive domestic political risks the refugees posed in Indian Bengal and of the way they have totally derailed the cause of Indian development at its very moment of greatest opportunity. Yet he has not begun to exercise the leadership. either before the Congress or in the international community. needed to accomplish a quick and adequate sharing of refugee costs. Such is the footing from which Mr. Nixon. first via his nameless State Department mouthpiece last Saturday. now from the White House itself. has branded India an aggressor.
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refugee refugees