Calcutta, June 8
After inspecting a section of the 1,300-mile Indo-Pakistan border today, Sir Terence Garvey, the British High Commissioner in India, described the situation of the refugees as very serious.

"The cumulative influx of refugees has exceeded the accommodation available", he told reporters in Calcutta tonight. "High land is scarce and as such a number of camps are situated in low-lying lands and are liable to be flooded when the rains become heavy and steady. Many unhoused refugees are moving towards Calcutta.

"My short trip leaves me in no doubt that the influx of refugees into West Bengal constitutes an enormous burden on the resources available for receiving them and this is quite plainly a matter in which the world will have to help."

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Calcutta. June 8.—Armed reserve policemen were called out today to prevent rioting between near-starving East Pakistan refugees and angry Indians at Barasat, 15 miles north of Calcutta.

Barasat ordinarily has a population of 90,000 but more than 200,000 refugees have poured in, camping in schools and official buildings and in mosques.

The refugees are predominantly Hindu, and although West Bengal is also a largely Hindu state the Muslims in Barasat reacted violently when their mosques were invaded. The police turned the refugees out of the mosques and private homes, but allowed them to stay in schools and government buildings.

Mr. B. Mandal, the senior West Bengal state commissioner for refugees, said today that there were an estimated 4,500,000 refugees now in West Bengal and at least another 1,500,000 in other states bordering East Pakistan.—Reuter.

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A Staff Reporter writes: Oxfam has received a message from its operations officer in Calcutta. Brigadier Michael Blackman, asking that no further relief supplies should be sent until he ordered them.

Brigadier Blackman also asked that non-Indian doctors, nurses and relief workers should be sent to India only if requested specifically by the 'Indian Government.

Oxfam said last night that Brigadier Blackman's request was not unexpected. A spokesman said that in such emergencies the first reaction of many countries and organizations was to send out as many supplies as possible without regard to the practical problems of distribution.

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Our Birmingham Correspondent writes: The Pakistan Test team refused to sign a cricket bat which Alderman Victor Turton, the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, proposes to auction for an appeal fund that he has launched. All the England team at Edgbaston signed the bat but the Pakistanis declined after intervention by an official of the Pakistan High Commission.