BRITISH POLICY ON PALESTINE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25706, 19 January 1949, Page 5

BRITISH POLICY ON PALESTINE

MR BEVIN’S CRITICS CONFER ATTACK IN COMMONS EXPECTED (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, January 17. “Eleven Labour critics of the Government’s Palestine policy, headed by Mr R. H. S. Crossman, M.P., attended a hastily summoned meeting in the House of Commons to-day to discuss plans for a concerted attack on Mr Ernest Bevin’s handling of the Palestine problem,” says the political correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” “It was learned after a ninetyminute meeting that the would-be rebels had failed to agree on any definite line of attack.” Mr Crossman, who has just returned from a visit to Palestine, attacked Mr Bevin in a Sunday paper at the weekend. “The British Cabinet to-day considered means of controlling the dispute over Palestine, which is expected to flare up when Parliament reassembles to-morrow,” says Reuter’s political correspondent. "Mr Bevin, who will face a full blast of criticism from all parts of the House, gave the Cabinet a lengthy report on the entire Middle East situation and gave an Outline of the statement he would make soon after the House assembled.” Intended Questions “Mr Churchill, when Parliament reassembles, will seek leave to ask a private notice question of Mr Bevin on recent events in Palestine and the Middle East,” says Reuter’s lobby correspondent. “This will give Mr Bevin an immediate opportunity, if he wants it, of making a comprehensive statement. “The Liberal Leader (Mr Clement Davies) proposes to ask Mr Bevin ‘why British forces were sent to Transjordan, Egypt and/or Palestine, being areas where, under the decision of the Security Council on May 29, 1948, no armed forces were to be sent; and whether the Security Council’s consent was obtained before the forces were sent.’ “Mr Davies will also ask Mr Bevin for an assurance that ‘British forces will not be ordered to engage in military operations in those areas, and that no further forces will be sent there.’ ” Mr Bevin’s Achievements “It must be asked whether the critics who have been issuing sombre warnings about Mr Ernest Bevin’s fate when he faces the House of Commons on Palestine can have forgotten the large credit balance which lies to the Foreign Secretary’s account,” says "The Times” in a leading article. “History will give him a high place in the making of at least a framework for new and constructive forms of association in the West. “If the master key of agreement with the Soviet has proved out of reach, the responsbiility has 'not been Mr Bevin’s. Those who now point a censuring finger at him from the Opposition side because of Palestine have mostly been his backers in these labours, while those among his party followers who now attack him bitterly were proved wrong and worsted when Russia was the cause of their . complaint. “To offer this reminder is to make

no apology for the dead end to which British policy in the Middle East has suddenly come. It simply serves to put in a truer perspective ari outburst of criticism which has become exaggerated, even hysterical. “Mr Bevin himself should understand that, all rancour apart, there is a deep sense of misgiving in Britain about the course of events in the Middle East. He alone can allay this honest anxiety by a greater flexibility, perhaps a larger generosity, in his reply to criticisms when they are not ill-founded.”