FIGHTING CONTINUES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 74, 7 January 1949, Page 3

FIGHTING CONTINUES

OPERATIONS IN NEGEV AREA Jews Report Egyptian Losses (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 6. An Israeli military spokesman said in Tel-Aviv this evening that Israel had agreed to a cease-fire in Negev from 2 p.m. to-day, but as no answer was received from the Egyptians, fighting continues. The- Israeli communique reports that Jewish forces inflicted heavy losses on Egyptians in men, vehicles, armour and trains in fighting in the Negev area of southern Palestine yesterday. Two Italian-made Fiat planes were shot down in Negev. It is officially stated than one Egyptian troop train carrying hundreds of officers and other ranks was captured intact during the current fighting. . The British Foreign Office spokesman said to-day that Jewish forces are still in Egypt. Information from British sources showed that although the main body which invaded Egypt a week ago had withdrawn, a contingent had dug in five miles inside Egyptian territory across the main road which goes south through the desert from Beersheba. These forces built a strong-point with barbed wire defences and anti-tank guns. The spokesman said that information indicated that the Jews were “digging in.” Egyptian sources suggested that little faith could be placed in the Jewish statement such as that made recently from Tel-Aviv indicating that all Jewish troops would be withdrawn from Egypt.

Reuter says that diplomatic quarters feel that this news would make the British Government unwilling to accept any Israeli undertaking to declare a cease-fire, which did not also undertake withdrawal to the original truce lines.

CEASE-FIRE ACCEPTED NEGOTIATIONS FOR ARMISTICE > # (Rec. 12.20.) NEW YORK, Jan. 6. Dr. Ralphe Bunche, acting-united Nations mediator in Palestine, > announced at Lake Success to-day that Israeli and - Egypt had agreed to a cease-fire that was effective at 2 p.m. (G.M.T.) to-day. He said the earliest possible negotiations for an armistice would follow.

CEASE-FIRE NOT CARRIED OUT (Rec. 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 6. Henri Vigier (personal deputy of Dr. Bunche (acting-United Nations mediator in Palestine) sent a report to Dr. Bunche, in the United States, saying that the cease-fire order which was to have become effective in Negev to-day was not implemented, says the Associated Press correspondent at Haifa. v

SUPPLIES FOR ISRAEL AIRCRAFT FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA (Rec. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON,. Jan. 5. Czechoslovak armament factories have been supplying the Jewish forces in Palestine with large quantities of aircraft, bombs and munitions, in spite of the embargo by the United Nations.

The British Foreign Office has given details and facts showing that between June and the middle of December the Jewish air forces nearly trebled in strength, and that a fleet of transport aircraft has been regularly ferrying cargoes from Czechoslovak arms factories to the Jewish forces, amounting to about 80 tons weekly. During the truce period, according to the Foreign Office, the Israeli Air Force received 74 aircraft. The Israeli Air Force now has at least 114 planes. The aircraft, mostly fighters, came from the State-owned armament industry of Czechoslovakia. Fighter pilot trainees have been sent from Palestine for instruction on aircraft. Volunteers from other quarters, mostly Jews from Czechoslovakia and Poland, but also including some Czechs, have been trained in Czechoslovakia as pilots and aircraft crews for service in Palestine. Skoda technicians have also gone to Palestine to assist in the militarisation of civilian aircraft and in other tasks. The authorities provided an airfield tq, serve as the main clearing-house for aircraft acquired in various countries by bogus companies. Aircraft ferrying arms into Israel used this airfield as the mean European terminus, but also refuelled at small airfields in Yugoslavia.

EFFECT OF ISRAELI GAINS DESTROYING U.N. TRUCE MACHINERY LONDON, Jan. 7. “Political leaders believe that in destroying the Egyptian Army’s ability to wage effective war in the Negev, Israel liae also destroyed the United Nations truce supervision machinery,’ says the Tel-Aviv correspondent of “The Times.” ... “It is believed that to attempt to reinforce the Egyptian Army s bedraggled authority would spell doom for any future efforts to eolve the remaining problem, namely, the future of the Arab-held areas in Palestine, Israel, in the short campaigns, has pushed its frontiers beyond those which the United Nations General Assembly agreed upon m November 29, 1947, and also the boundaries which Count Bernadotte suggested. “Israel now firmly holds the whole

of Galilee and all the Negev—4s. per Sent of Palestine —except for small Egyptian pockets in the Faluja and Gaza areas. This-land is rapidly being settled upon and rapidly developed by Kibbutznicks —armed farmers, whose agricultural efficiency is backed by modern research and American dollars and whose fanaticism has been previously unsurpassed. These are accomplishments which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.” The diplomatic correspondent of ‘‘The Times” says: “Official quarters in London neither confirm or deny the Israeli Government’s statement regarding movements of British troops to Transjordan and in Egypt. This means presumably that the statement was inaccurate only in detail. It would not be surprising if the British Government were taking preliminary measures to enable it to fulfil its treaty obligations for the defence of both Transjordan and Egypt if it should become necessary-” ; Reuter’s Tel-Aviv correspondent says that the Israeli Cabinet is understood to have accepted in principle the United Nations cease-fire order. He says that the decision will be conveyed to the United Nations.

British Foreign Office View

“The general situation in Palestine remains serious so long as Jewish forces continue to flout the resolutions passed by the Security Council calling for an end to the fighting,'’ said a British Foreign Office spokesman in London. / A study of British reports showed that there was no doubt at all that the Egyptian frontier had been crossed by Jewish troops who had since crossed back again into Palessaid the spokesman. This undoubtedly meant that the situation on the spot had become somewhat less serious, but the last of the Security Council’s resolutions, which had called for an immediate cease fire in Palestine, was being most flagrantly violated by the Jews who in addition were still refusing to allow United Nations observers or correspondents into the area of the fighting. The Foreign Office welcomed the announcement by the State Department that the United States Government had urged both the Jewish authorities and the Egyptian Government to carry out the Security Council’s resolutions and stop fighting.

AN EGYPTIAN COMPLAINT JEWS BOMB REFUGEE CAMP (Rec. 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 6, The Egyptian War Ministry spokesman alleged that Jewish planes bombed refugee camps, killing or wounding a number of inmates, says Reuter’s correspondent at Cairo. Egyptian artillery and cavalry repulsed enemy attacks' in Negev in the last 24 hours.

BRITAIN’S SERIOUS VIEW

MATTER OF INTERNATIONAL URGENCY

(Rec. 12.45 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. -6. When Sir Alexander Cadogan, who is now crossing the Atlantic in the Queen Mary, reaches New York, he will outline to the Security Council a series of grave disclosures on the supply of arms to the Jews, which Britain regards as a matter of international urgency says the “Daily Mail.” British sources have collected a mass of material, which will be lodged to support tlie case. It is asserted that the Middle East is beingflung into a ferment by the Jews’ reckless actions in flouting the United Nations’ rulings.