HC Deb 21 June 1971 vol 819 cc986-7
32. Mrs. Hart

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the meeting of the India Aid Consortium on 19th June

Mr. Wood

Donors were asked to pledge their new aid commitments for the present year. Britain promised £54.5 millions.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs will make a statement very soon about assistance to India for the relief of refugees from East Pakistan. This is not a matter that concerns only the consortium countries, but it was generally agreed by them that their contribution to this relief would be additional to normal development assistance.

Mrs. Hart

I very much welcome that statement and look forward to the further statement which we can expect to be made, but does the right hon. Gentleman agree, as most hon. Members would agree, that probably even more important than our relief efforts and assistance to India for aid and relief is a political settlement which is genuine enough to enable the refugees to return to East Pakistan?

Mr. Wood

My right hon. Friend and I have repeatedly stressed that in past debates. I entirely agree with the right hon. Lady.

Mr. Braine

Does my right hon. Friend recall the anxieties the Foreign Secretary expressed a short time ago about a new disaster threatening in East Pakistan; namely, famine and presumably its spilling over the border into East Bengal? Can he say whether the Indian and Pakistan consortia are addressing themselves to this problem and the need for contingency planning now?

Mr. Wood

On the question about the Indian and Pakistan consortia, as my hon. Friend knows the members of the Pakistan consortium are now meeting, and the problem he mentioned will, no doubt, be part of the substance of what my right hon. Friend will tell the House very soon.