LONDON, June 8 — The Foreign Secretary said today that the responsibility for the refugees flooding into India from East Pakistan “must be assumed by the United Nations.”

Speaking in the House of Commons, Sir Alec Douglas Home estimated numbers of refugees at “upwards of 4,000,000.” He said that the size of, the problem required coordination and direction by a central body. The Indian Government, he said, has responded with “generosity and resources butt clearly the burden is such that, it must not rest solely on them.”

Sir Alec warned that there was a possibility of “wide spread starvation.”

“Plans must be made by the Pakistan Government in cooporation with the United Nations coordinator urgently to anticipate this need,” he declared.

Sir Alec's statement appeared to reflect a desire by the British Government to get an outside body into East Pakistan in the hope that it would be a moderating influence on Pakistani army operations.