U.K. National Archives

Conclusions of a meeting of the Cabinet held at 10 Downing Street, on Thursday, 29 April, 1971 at 10.30 a.m.

Attendees: E Heath; R Maudling; Hailsham; W Whitelaw; K Joseph; R Carr; G Campbell; P Walker; J Prior; A Douglas-Home; A Barber; Carrington; G Rippon; M Thatcher; Jellicoe; P Thomas; J Davies; M Macmillan; F Pym.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary said that three aspects of the continuing unrest in East Pakistan gave grounds for concern. First, some 200,000 East Pakistani refugees were now in Indian territory without shelter or adequate supplies of food Public opinion in this country would expect the Government to be taking some action to alleviate their suffering; and he was therefore proposing to inform the major charitable organisations that we could help them by providing space for relief supplies in military aircraft or, if this proved unacceptable to the Government of India, in chartered civilian aircraft. It would be wise to consider carefully giving the Government of Pakistan an explanation of the action which we were taking. Second, the economic plight of Pakistan was very• serious, particularly since the Government's reserves of foreign exchange were likely to be exhausted in May. Action by a number of countries would be required to deal with the situation; and we were already in touch with the United States Government on this matter. Third, there was a prospect of famine in East Pakistan in July or August. He had discussed this aspect of the problem with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Rogers: and they had agreed to appeal jointly to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, to send an expert team to the area at once in order to assess its requirements of foodstuffs.

In the course of a brief discussion it was suggested that Parliament should soon be told as much as possible about the steps which we were taking in order to alleviate suffering and to restore stability in the area. But, although such a statement would be very desirable, care should he taken to say nothing which might cause embarrassment to the Government of Pakistan_ Moreover, the United States Secretary of State had indicated that he would prefer no publicity to be given to the approach to U Thant at this stage.

The Prime Minister, summing up the discussion, said that he had received a special envoy of President Yahya Khan, Mian Arshad Husain, on 27 April. He had explained to him that the amount of help which we could give was bound to depend on the state of public opinion in this country and on the extent to which the Government of Pakistan showed that they were dealing effectively with the situation in East Pakistan. He had emphasised that two matters were causing us special concern: the reportedly brutal conduct of the Army in East Pakistan and the serious economic position of the country.

The Cabinet-
2. Took note of the statements by the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and the Prime Minister