50 YEARS AGO Bangladesh crises subside

The religious and food crises that rocked Bangladesh as the new nation was emerging from its war for independence were subsiding but the new country had a long way to go for economic recovery, according to John Maddaus, a Schenectady native who had recently returned from a 12-day fact-finding tour with an emergency relief committee. Speaking at a Ballston Spa Rotary Club event, the former Peace Corps volunteer in India and a student at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt., said the people of the former East Pakistan had banded together, forgetting their Hindu and Muslim backgrounds and were united by the common bond of Bengali culture, which was shared by both. The 10 million refugees who had fled to India during the war were returning home and finding their country and economy had been destroyed. The relief organization Maddaus had accompanied had raised $100,000 (almost $700,000 today) for returning refugees. Bangladesh had declared its independence earlier this year, after seceding from West Pakistan. —Times Union, May 24, 1972