§ Sir John Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what help has been given to the respective countries of the Indian subcontinent following the flood disaster of this summer.
§ Mr. WoodWe gave £170,000 immediately for urgent relief supplies to be flown to Pakistan, where the flood disaster was by far the most serious. At 119W the same time we offered a development loan of £4 million free of interest for longer-term reconstruction. I shall consider what further help we might give when I have seen the assessment of Pakistan's needs now being made by the World Bank.
No special appeal for flood relief has been made to me by either Bangladesh or India, where the floods have not caused devastation on the scale of the Pakistan disaster. I understand that in general the autumn harvest prospects in both countries are encouraging. Our normal aid programmes to both countries are continuing, and we have recently offered a further development loan of £3 million to Bangladesh to supplement our relief effort.