MUFTI'S GUIDANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 18, 23 January 1939, Page 9

MUFTI'S GUIDANCE

ARABS DISSATISFIED

CHANCES COMPROMISED

TERRORIST CAMPAIGN

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, January 21. Information reaching circles in London interested in the Near Eastern problems confirms reports of the growing dissatisfaction of large sections of Arab opinion in Palestine, Syria, and elsewhere with the continued intransigence -of the policy pursued by the Grand Mufti and his associates and with the prolongation of the terrorist campaign.

The feeling among many sections of Arab opinion is reported to be one of disappointment that the opportunity of a settlement offered by the forthcoming London discussions is being compromised by the continuation of terrorism.

It is said that many moderate Arabs are being led to ask whether the obstinacy of the Grand Mufti and his associates in pursuing a policy which is thought to serve the cause of certain foreign Powers better than it does that of the Arabs may not be because of self-interest.

Early in November Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, Secretary for the Colonies, stated in the House of Commons that the British Government was reserving the right to refuse to receive at '.he London conference leaders whom it regarded as responsible for the jampaign of assassination and violence, and that it would exercise this right in respect of the Grand Mufti "whose record for many years makes l him wholly unacceptable." Later Mr. MacDonald stated that the British Government had informed' the Palestine Arabs that it desired* that all groups should be represented as fully as possibie. He stated, that the decision on the Grand Mufti was final, but that if it was desired that other individuals who were deported or subjected to exclusion should be representatives Britain would agree. On January 2 a message from Aden reported that selection of the Arab delegates was at a standstill.