HUGE REFUGEE CONVOY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25309, 8 October 1947, Page 7

HUGE REFUGEE CONVOY

NON MOSLEMS’ TREK TO EAST PUNJAB

OLD AND SICK DYING AT ROADSIDE

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 6. ‘‘One of the greatest mass migrations in history is nearing completion as a 75-mile convoy of the uprooted non-Moslem population continues to pour over the Pakistan border into India from the fertile areas of West Punjab,” says Reuters correspondent in New Delhi. ‘‘The moving mass of humanity is so vest that it took eight days to pass one point. It consists of shopkeepers, artisans, doctors, lawyers, and former rich landlords. They are sustained by food dropped from the air. Doctors are flown to their aid, but many of the old and sick have died by the roadside. “The whole convoy is expected to have crossed into East Punjab within the next few days. The gigantic task of settling them will then begin.” “Vast expanses of land in the Punjab are still inundated and the refugee convoys are still mainly at a standstill,” says the Delhi correspondent of “The Times,” who flew over the area. “One east-bound convoy waiting to cross a river stretched for 50 miles along the road. At least four groups of refugees, numbering about 10,000, who had lost their cattle and the bullock carts containing their only food, were seen marooned by water. It is not known how long they had been in such a plight.” •