From Our Correspondent Calcutta, April 25
Half a million refugees from East Bengal have crossed into West Bengal since the West Pakistan military crackdown on the Bangla Desh movement a month ago.

They have been driven to flee the eastern province not only by fear of military repression but also by the threat of starvation.

Most factories are still closed, jute cultivation has been virtually abandoned and work in paddy-fields has been reduced to a minimum.

Resistance leaders have been urging peasants to concentrate on growing rice wherever possible to meet essential food needs, but the success of this effort is far from certain. Food shortages are now reported from most parts of East Bengal and in at least two areas there have been food riots after the military authorities refused to release stocks from government stores.

It is hoped on this side of the border that, unlike the refugees in the past, the new ones will not permanently settle in West Bengal but will return to East Bengal.

Nobody, however, can foresee when and how this will happen.

No one can say, either, how long the Pakistan Government can continue to bear the heavy financial burden of continuing its military operations in East Bengal with supplies and men having to be transported by air and sea from the western province.