“SURPRISE AND INCREDULITY”

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25301, 29 September 1947, Page 7

“SURPRISE AND INCREDULITY”

Reactions To News In Palestine

WELCOME GIVEN BY ARABS

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONQQN, September 27.’ “The British decision concerning Palestine was received by Arabs and Jews alike with surprise and incredulity,” says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Jerusalem correspondent. “The Arabs welcomed it, but many ordinary Jews were not so happy. “One Jewish Shopkeeper said: ‘Withdrawal is a betrayal. We belong by right to the British Empire.’ Another said: ‘lf the British withdraw we shall be at the mercy of our terrorists.’ “British troops are frankly delighted at the news.”

In Jerusalem Dr. Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, told the press that the six Arab states which were members of the United Nations would be willing to take over in Palestine if the British evacuated “until a representative democratic government is established.”

The six states to which Dr. Khalidi referred are Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The Arab Office in London, in a statement broadly welcoming the British decision on Palestine, said that the Arabs would regard as thoroughly unacceptable any move'to hand over the British administration to a foreign authority.

, it a -£ d -^ d - the Arabs had always P~d B ntain solely responsible for creating the Palestine problem, and Britain could not in their eyes escape hanH- es P°nsibility of solving .it by nandmg the country to the United canons or any United Nations group.