The appeal of the United States Government to India and Pakistan to avoid exacerbation of tensions rising out of the civil strife in East Pakistan and the flight millions of refugees into India is long overdue. represents belated acknowledgement of the grave international implications of a conflict that Washington has tried to dismiss as a domestic affair.

But appeals for restraint on both sides of the tense Indo‐Pak borders are likely to be futile unless the United States is prepared to use its considerable influence Islamabad to try to halt the policy of repression in East Pakistan that is now threatening the stability of the entire Indian subcontinent. The Punjabi‐dominated military government's efforts to kill or drive out Bengali dissidents, and especially that government's deliberate campaign of terror against Hindus, have generated overwhelming economic, social and political problems not only in East Pakistan but in neighboring India as well.

Prime Minister Gandhi has in fact exercised remarkable restraint so far in the face of soaring pressures created by the influx of millions of destitute, disease-laden refugees into eastern India and by the horrifying example of communal strife just across the border. But Mrs. Gandhi's bitter, emotional outburst in Parliament the other day suggests that she is nearing the end of her patience and perhaps of her ability to control events.

Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco has at last called on the Pakistani Government to restore normal conditions in East Pakistan through “peaceful political accommodations.” But officials in Washington at the same time made clear that the United States Government did not plan to withhold economic development assistance from Pakistan if such an accommodation was not forthcoming.

As a general principle, this newspaper has opposed the imposition of political conditions on development aid. But in the case of Pakistan today it is certainly reasonable to question whether such aid can be effectively utilized by a government that is at war with a large part of its population. It is highly doubtful that American interests or the real interests of Pakistan will be served by continuing to assist a regime that savagely suppresses its own people, refuses to yield to democratically elected leaders and pursues policies that threaten the peace and security of a neighboring state where the United States also has a substantial development interest.

The prospects for peaceful progress on the India subcontinent would be improved if the United States and other donor nations, which will be meeting in Paris the next few days, refrained from making fresh pledges of assistance to Islamabad until there is clear evidence of a genuine political accommodation in Pakistan.