DANGER TO PEACE TALKS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 79, 13 January 1949, Page 5

DANGER TO PEACE TALKS

The Complaint by Israel

OFFICIAL VIEW IN UNITED STATES (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) LONDON, January 12. Official United States sources in Washington regard Israel’s decision to denuonce before the Security Council Britain’s alleged intervention in the Palestine situation as a serious setback to the efforts of the United Nations SecretaryGeneral (Mr Trygve Lie) and the United States State Department to ease the tension between Britain and Israel. Officials regard the easing of the situation as an important objective in preparing a calm, harmonious atmosphere before the Israel-Egypt talks, which begin in Rhodes to-day.

With the arrival last night of the troopship Empire Comfort, carrying another company from the Suez Canal zone, the strength of the British military force of the Transjordan port of Akaba is now between 800 and 1200 men, says the “Daily Express” correspondent at Akaba. Most of the troops arrived last Saturday, including units of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers. The naval force, which has consisted of two destroyers and smaller craft, has been depleted by the departure of one of the destroyers. The Israeli Provisional Government is rapidly losing what little confidence it had in a successful conclusion of the Israel-Egypt peace negotiations. The Egyptian Government’s apparent insistence that the negotiations should be held on a comparatively low level, and its Note to the United Nations saying that it was not prepared to negotiate unless the Israeli Army withdraw from certain positions in the Gaza area, are taken as evidence of growing Egyptian intransigence. It is believed that the Egyptian Government’s expressed willingness to negotiate an armistice was only the outcome of American diplomatic pressure and of the need to call a halt to Israel’s successful Negev campaign. The Israeli Government is now obviously eager to negotiate, but the Direc-tor-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry yesterday cabled to the personal deputy of the acting United Nations mediator, saying that the Ministry would refuse to accept any other conditions which Egypt was likely to attach to the holding of negotiations.

“British Resent U.S. Criticism”

A dispatch to the “New York Times” from London says: “British officials were concerned over the deterioration of British-American relations, as Britons displayed resentment over reports of American criticism of the British stand in Palestine. “Washington is blamed above all for failure to support the United Nations’ efforts to prevent constant violations of the Security Council’s resolutions by the Israelis. “A British Foreign Office spokesman said that Britain was taking her duty toward the United Nations rather more seriously than others, and expressed deep regret that the United States had done so little to stand by the United Nations’ resolutions and the Bernadotte plan.” . Under the headline, “Bevin, Britain’s Bloodthirsty Blunderer,” the pro-Zionist “New York Post” says m a leading article to-day that the United States must demand “the cessation of the British effort to reconquer Palestine by force.” It adds: “If we merely stand on the sidelines and nutter our disapproval or our dissent. Britain will s icceed l” prosecuting her ivar on Israel and will luwe demonstrated conclusively that the United Nations is dead. A direct Avoid from Mr Truman to the British Prime Minister Avould not be too much to seek Avlien the machinery for keeping the peace of the Avorld is being ruthlesslv destroyed.”

“Not a single French newspaper finds anything to praise in either the British or the American handling of the Palestine situation,” says the Paris correspondent of “The Times.” ‘•Typical comment is that the choice of the Western Powers in Palestine is either to carry on the' work of the last 30 years by recognising the existence of' a Jewish State, marking out its frontiers, and smoothing over difficulties between it and the Arabs, or deliberately to accept the prospects of seeing a conflagration spread from the Holy Land to the whole of the,Middle East area and perhaps beyond.” The correspondent says that pressure for French recognition of the State of Israel has been strong for some time and that it is believed that a form of recognition will he accorded very shortly. The Foreign Office spokesman said: “His Majesty’s Government feels that the honest tiling for both sides to do is to accept the Security Council’s decisions, and from that point let them negotiate a peace settlement, with the conciliation commission. The British Government lias never taken any steps to prevent a negotiated settlement. The United Nations records show that we have continually reiterated that we thought the final settlement would have to he something reasonably acceptable to the Jews and the Arabs.”

The spokesman added that the British Government reserved its future action over the shooting down of the Royal Air Force aeroplanes. He said that if there were more Jewish attacks of the same kind, then the incident of January 7 would have to be regarded as one in a .series of deliberately provocative actions.