AT PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1940, Page 7

AT PEACE

THE MIDDLE EAST

CONTROVERSY SUNK

SUBDUED IN WAR

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, March 27.

In a broadcast this evening Lord Samuel, former High Commisioner of Palestine, gave impressions he gathered during his recent visit to the Middle East. He described the countries visited as being" "more at peace now than in peacetime." In all the countries he visited—Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Cyprus, Syria, Irak, and The Hejaz—every section of the community was of one mind in the determination that no aggressive totalitarian State should obtain the controlling influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. The rulers and ruled alike were against Germany, and anxious not to do anything to hinder the French and British war efforts. Speaking of the armies assembled by the Allies in the Middle East, x Lord Samuel described them as British, French, Australian^ and New' Zealand troops in great strength distributed in great camps from the western frontiers of Egypt to the Turkish border, ready by using the excellent roads to meet any eventualities ;that might. occur. TRUCE IN CYPRUS. Dealing with individual countries, Lord Samuel said that the serious political controversies between the Greek Cypriots and the British Government which for years had existed in Cyprus were now superseded by a definite trace, and he found that the ' chief grievance advanced was the smallness of the number of Cypriot volunteers the British Army would accept. ■'.-,■ ' Of Palestine he said: "You will recall that a year ago the whole country was gravely disturbed. , There were bomb outrages, assassinations, and train wreckings, transport ~ was almost stopped, the Government administration could not function at all in most of the country districts, and disturbances grew to the dimensions of a rebellion. Now everything is completely changed. There have been no serious outrages for a long time. / "One can travel freely without danger throughout the country. There are a few outlaws still roaming the hills, so that night travel on the roads is still prohibited. But the police are in full control and the Government officials are at their posts everywhere. Except in one or two places the Arabs and Jews are mixing freely—they work side by side in the same employments, 'they do business together as before, and the neighbouring villages are again friendly." * PALESTINE TRANQUILLITY. Though the war had helped to bring! this about, he continued, it was a mistake to think that it had been the prin-, cipal cause. The disturbances^ Lord Samuel pointed out. had almost ceased weeks hefore the war began, when the Army's very effective measures had protected Arab village's from the terrorists, broken'up bands, and arrested their leaders. The Government's policy, the London political conference, and the advice to the neighbouring Moslem rulers had continued the trend towards tranquillity which had been concluded by the outbreak of the war. "Both the Arab and Jewish peqples would regard. a British defeat and a Nazi victory as the greatest disaster," Lord Samuel said. "Their common trial compels a truce." Speaking of the recent introduction1 of restrictions on the sale and purchase i of land which had been announced since he left Palestine, Lord Samuel | remarked: "To this there is vehement ■ opposition. Political controversy has been stirred up afresh. But it is probable that the opposition will be pressed by constitutional means. Certainly the Jewish population of Palestine, which now numbers half a million, including 70,000 refugees from Germany as a living example of the results of the cruel Nazi persecution, would, be the last people in the world to embarrass in however small degree the British Empire in its life and death struggle with 'Hitlerism." EGYPTIAN PROSPERITY. Cyprus, and to some extent Palestine, had suffered loss of trade by reason of shipping being directed from fruit-carrying to military uses, he said, and he said that he had seen oranges for sale in the Cyprus markets at 24 a penny. Palestine, however, had benefited by a great new refinery that was being erected at a cost of £5,000,000 to deal with the oil jumped through the pipeline 600 miles across the desert from Irak. Turning finally to Egypt, Lord Samuel said that - there high cotton prices were bringing prosperity, and he paid> a tribute to the "wholehearted way in which the Egyptian Government and the local authorities are cooperating in the military measures of their British ally." . Concluding, he said: "But it is well to remember that in all these countries political problems are still there and still unsolved, to be dealt with seme day. Particularly that is so in Palestine. It may be that the better atmosphere now prevailing may make solution easier. To predict is impossible, but we may at least allow ourselves to hope that it will prove to be so." -•