Pakistan's role as the jumping off point for Dr. Henry Kissinger's recent secret flight to Peking may help explain though not to excuse — the Administration's shocking support for the Yahya Khan Government during the first few months of the vicious military crackdown in East Pakistan. But now that the door to China has been opened, it is impossible to excuse or explain Washington's continuing supply of arms to Islamabad and Its persisting ambiguity in the face of a deepening tragedy that threatens to erupt before the year is out into major international conflict.

Reports from Pakistan indicate that President Yahya and his military supporters are still determined to pursue their policy of military repression in the East, having failed to rally any significant number of Bengali politicians to their side. President Yahya has threatened to try in a secret military court and possibly to execute Sheikh Mujibar Rahman, the imprisoned Bengali leader who remains the best hope for a political settlement of the civil conflict.

Meanwhile, there is imminent threat of widespread famine in the stricken eastern province, where planting has been neglected and shattered communications lines hamper the movement of available food stocks. Refugees continue to pour over the Indian border by the tens thousands daily, creating problems that a Red Cross official has described as catastrophic.

Resistance in East Pakistan continues, with bombings a daily occurrence in the capital of Dacca and communications throughout the province seriously disrupted. The Bengalis are said to be training tens of thousands guerrilla fighters in camps along the Indian border preparation for a major effort in the fall when the mon soon rains end. If this should occur, the guerrilla activity almost certainly would lead to a confrontation between India and Pakistan, even if Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi succeeded in the meantime in resisting rising pressures for immediate military intervention.

It is not necessary to agree wholly with India's over righteous attitude to recognize that President Yahya's ruthless policies in Bengal are putting New Delhi an increasingly difficult position. India simply cannot support—economically, socially or politically—a flow refugees from East Pakistan that already exceeds seven million. Even more serious, the systematic slaughter, rape and expulsion of Hindus from East Pakistan could touch off communal violence throughout India, with its substantial Moslem minority. It is no wonder that Indians are appalled and angry over United States Government policies that give aid and comfort to the Yahya regime while seeming to disregard the horrible implications of events in East Pakistan.

Under persistent prodding of members of Congress, the Administration appears to be altering its position somewhat. There have been vague assurances that no new arms or economic aid will be granted to Islamabad for the present. The planned dispatch of an American police adviser to Dacca has reportedly been canceled. But American arms continue to flow to Yahya's troops under old licensing agreements and the exact Washington position on other aid is by no means clear.

It is time all American aid to the Yahya regime, excepting relief assistance, was unequivocally stopped. The reported American‐backed plan to station United Nations observers in East Pakistan could help ease the plight the Bengalis but it falls far short of the political accommodation that is needed to head off an explosion on the Indian subcontinent that could precipitate an American Chinese‐Soviet confrontation in the Himalayas.