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“Another War Inevitable”

Another Arab-Israeli war was inevitable unless the refugee problem was settled and Israel was internationally recognised as a sovereign state, Lieutenant Colonel M. C. Stanaway forecast in Christchurch last evening.

He told a tattoo of the Christchurch R.S.A. Tin Hat Club he feared that another war like that of last year would flare into a major conflagration because of the strategic importance of the Middle East to the great powers.

Colonel Stanaway was chairman of the United Nations armistice commission until the oubreak of the war in June, 1967. He said that he had no doubt that the Israelis would win another war but they would be unable to control the territory they gained. Their present problem was coping with 1.3 million refugees now under their control, including 900,000 Moslems, 70,000 of them living in tents. If they were not careful they would find themselves outnumbered by the people they had conquered. The solution to the dispute in the area must eventually

be settled by Russia and the United States. The situation was so complex that there would be nothing but stalemate between Israel and the Arabs if it remained up to them to settle the problems peacefully. Colonel Stanaway said that the Arabs did not want to fight. They knew that given time they would outbreed the Israelis if they were conquered by them.

He said that the Israelis were unquestionably treating the refugees as third class citizens and denying them their freedom.

Russia had gained more than anyone from the war last year, he said. It had used the war as an excuse to get a much bigger fleet into the Mediterranean. It did not want to see the Arabs win the war because it would then have lost its excuse for being in the area.

In prestige-, the United States had suffered greatly and had lost more than 80 per cent of the good will it had won by establishing universities, hospitals and libraries in Arab countries.

He said that the closing of the Suez Canal had badly affected Egypt, Britain and Russia. The United States and Israel were glad of the closing even though the canal’s importance as a waterway had declined before the war last year.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19680821.2.132

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 14

Word Count
374

“Another War Inevitable” Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 14

“Another War Inevitable” Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 14