FATE OF OLD CITY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 136, 20 March 1948, Page 5

FATE OF OLD CITY

Arabs and Jews Asked to Confer LITTLE SUCCESS SO FAR (N.Z.P. A.—Copy right). (Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, March 10. The Colonial Secretary, Mr A. Creech Jones, emphasised to-day in the House of Commons that Britain did not intend to retain / authority in Palestine after May 15. He said the Government could only hope that the United Nations would then be in a position to take over. It •was impossible to foresee what would happen after May 15, but Britain had done everything to ensure the orderly transfer of power to the Palestine Commission.

\ The British United Press Jerusalem correspondent says the- Chief Secretary, Sir Henry Gurney, invited Arab and Jewish religious leaders to confer about the fate of the Old City of Jerusalem after the British leave. Jerusalem proper would he an international city under the United Nations’ partition plan. The chairman of the Supreme Moslem Council replied that lie would not confer with Jewish Rabbis.

The Chief' Rabbi is consulting the Jewish Agency before replying. Deaths in Palestine fighting yesterday totalled at least 26, including six British soldiers and 20 Jews.