1971-03-31
By Benjamin Welles
Page: 2
Special to the New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 30--United States officials said today that the Administration had made no final decision on the recommendation by Mr. Blood the consul general, that American women, children and some of the men be evacuated from East Pakistan.
They added that therefore the Pakistani Government had not been asked for official permission for evacuation planes to land at the East Pakistani capital. United States planes have been reported standing by at Bangkok, Thailand, for use if needed.
Dacca was reported to be quiet by officials who said that the State Department was in continuing communication with its consulate general there.
Because of the sporadic curfew imposed in Dacca by Pakistani Army forces, the United States Government team--15 in the consulate general, 29 in the Agency for International Development and 6 in the United States Information Agency--have been largely prevented from moving about. State Department officials said that information from the countryside was virtually nonexistent.
They cited the "potential danger" to the 1,000 American citizens in East Pakistan and to the 2,200 in West Pakistan as a prime reason for saying as little as possible now.
Charles W. Bray 3rd, the State Department spokesman said that the United States had not supplied equipment under its military assistance program for Pakistani forces stationed in East Pakistan.
He said the United States did not know whether such arms had been introduced into East Pakistan and were being used to suppress the East Pakistanis.
Other officials pointed out that the United States arms shipments to Pakistan had begun in 1954 and had ended in 1965 at the time of the Indian-Pakistani war over the Rann of Kutch.
Last fall, they said the United States agreed to resume on a "one-time basis" shipments of aircraft and armored personnel carriers to replace obsolete United States equipment. Negotiations over prices and specifications have not yet been completed, the officials said, and there are no arms now going to Pakistan.