Abdullah May Become King Of Palestine-- Transjordan State

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22817, 11 December 1948, Page 5

Abdullah May Become King Of Palestine--Transjordan State

LONDON, Dec. 9. According to the Egyptian papers, King Abdullah of Transjordan would be proclaimed “King of the United Hashemite Kingdom” in Cairo on Sunday. Some observers said that this new kingdom would imply the annexation of Arab Palestine by Transjordan as provided in Count Bernadotte’s plan. The newspaper A 1 Misri said that after the proclamation a new Amman Cabinet would be formed of 15 Ministers —seven representing Transjordan and eight from Arab Palestine. The fact that King Abdullah accepted the Jericho Arab - Congress offer to unite Palestine and Transjordan has come as a most unpleasant shock to the Arab League circles, says the Times correspondent in Cairo. The Arab press accuses Britain of having made a secret agreement with Transjordan in furtherance of “imperialist ambitions” by which Britain will be allowed to cut a canal from Gaza to the Dead Sea, thence to Aqaba on the Red Sea, thus by-passing Suez Canal. The press says that Egypt and the Arab States sacrificed blood and money so that Palestine can become a British base under an Arab name, a British colony under the Arab crown and a base from which Syrian independence can be destroyed. The British United Press correspondent in Cairo quotes the Egyptian Minister of Information, M. Joseph Sayoun, as saying that the Palestine Arabs could not accept King Abdullah as a ruler of a joint State, the Transjordan and Palestine. Such action would be considered a violation of Arab unity, the Transjordan Government’s pledges to the Arab League and King Abdullah’s declarations to the Palestine Arabs.