Delhi, July 22
All foreign volunteers working in refugee camps in eastern India will be asked to leave soon because the Indian Government suspects that Americans have planted agents in charitable organizations operating near the border, a reliable informant told me.

A Government spokesman who had previously denied reports that foreigners will soon be asked to quit the camps has retracted his statement and said that the Government is grateful for the volunteers’ assistance but it will be happy when they go.

He claimed there were two reasons the Government had been forced to take the step. First it had found itself responsible for the security and the accommodation of foreigners in rural areas and this had caused too many administrative headaches. Secondly, the spokesman said that there was no dearth of Indian doctors and nurses.

But statistics in the Ministry of Health do not support the claim that there are enough unemployed Indian doctors and nurses to administer the clinics and hospitals in the refugee camps.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said there was a shortage of doctors in India.

“There are 127,205 doctors registered on the Indian medical role which means that we have one doctor tor every 5,000 people”, he said. “At the moment we are trying to reduce the ratio to one doctor for every 3,500 persons, but we are still trying, to find personnel for 28 primary health centres. So the question of unemployment does not arise.”

However, Indian journalists who have the confidence of the Government claim that the Government has taken the decision reluctantly because it is suspected that some American organizations might have connexions with the CIA.

It is also likely that the Indians do not want foreigners to observe the steps they are taking to strengthen the band of the Bengali guerrillas who are operating from bases established near the border in Indian territory.

Our Geneva correspondent writes: Because of the looming danger of famine among refugees in the Indian state of Tripura. United Nations officials here are considering an emergency airlift of 9,000 tons of rice.

With the state’s population almost doubled over the last three months by the influx of 1.1 million refugees, the remaining food supplies are sufficient for less than three weeks.

“There is real danger of famine if new stocks are not delivered”, an official said The air-lift would he operated by British aircraft.