Mr Richard Wood, Minister for Overseas Development, yesterday defended the Government's response to the East Pakistan cholera relief crisis.

Asked on the BBC programme The world this weekend if the £1m aid offered was an insult, he replied: "No. I don't think it it an insult at all

"We made this offer immediately and we also made an offer of food under the World Food Programme which will probably bring our present contribution up to something like £2m."

He denied that the British Government were withholding aid because they did not agree with the situation in East Pakistan. We are anxious and I personally am very anxious to resume as soon as possible our aid programme in East Pakistan.

At the moment, conditions are so unsettled that we really physically could not spend the money. We are only too ready to do so if the conditions return more or less to normal."

He rejected the suggestion that the Government were using the situation as a political lever against President Yahya Khan of Pakistan. What we are anxious to do is to see there is a political settlement to bring a reasonable stability of conditions in East Pakistan, which are the only conditions in which we can continue our aid,"

Asked what the British Government were doing to achieve a political settlement of the Pakistan crisis, Mr. Wood said: "The Prime Minister has communicated with Yahya Khan about the necessity of a political settlement, particularly in relation to our aid programme in East Pakistan, which frankly it is impossible to resume much as we want to resume it, until conditions of political stability exist again."

Mrs. Judith Hart, Labour's spokesman on overseas aid, who is to meet Mr. Wood at her request on Tuesday, described the Government's aid offer as "derisory".

Mrs. Hart also said that a complete cessation of army activities in East Pakistan should be a precondition of aid to Pakistan.

Aid for cholera victims from War on Want will be dispatched on Wednesday, when a medical team is to fly from Britain in a VC I0 carrying six tons of supplies. The Team of nurses and doctors is to be flown to Calcutta with supplies which include a 20-bed field hospital, vaccine, anti-bacteria tablets and mass inoculation guns.

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Our Geneva Correspondent writes:
World Health Organizations officials said today chat the air freighting of medical supplies to India for cholera victims among East Pakistan refugees would get properly under way tomorrow.

Some two and a half tons of supplies have left over the weekend of about 17 tons and awaiting dispatch since Saturday morning. "It's a logistics problem", an official said. "And at the other end they probably have 10 times the problem where distribution is concerned."