NUMEROUS CONFLICTS IN PALESTINE

Grey River Argus, 22 April 1948, Page 5

NUMEROUS CONFLICTS IN PALESTINE

U.S.A. Proposes U.N.O.

Forces for Palestine

JERUSALEM, April 20.

Violent incidents continued throughout Palestine., to-day. Jews. Arabs and British troops were among the wounded and killed.

Telephone . communications in Palestine are deteriorating daily. Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv were cut off from each other to-day. The Government press censorship will end on April 30, and will be replaced by Haganah censorship of local publications. ■

JEWS ATTACK BRITISH Two British soldiers were killed and another injured when 20 Jews overpowered the crew of a Bren-gun carrier, which was announcing the curfew in Jaffa-Tel Aviv “no man’s land”. The Jews disappeared with the carrier towards Tel Aviv. Arabs took over the British outpost of Beni Yusha, north of Safad, after Palestine police had evacuated It.

FIGHT IN SAFED Jews and Arabs to-day started fighting in Safed for strategic buildings in the town. The Arabs are reported to have occupied a school and an hotel.

NORTH PALESTINE FIGHTING Heavy fighting is also reported to be going, on in Tiberias, where Arab Legion troops have arrived. Sixty Jews were killed in fighting for the frontier post of Heni Yvshe, on the Syrian border, which Arabs occupied yesterday, after British police had evacuated it. Six hundred Jews tried to rush the barbed wire defences. The Arabs fought them off and called up reinforcements.

ARABS ATTACK P.O. Arabs who held up a post office van in Allenby Square, Jerusalem, stole 76 mailbags and forced post office employees to accompany them to the Garden of Gethsemane, where they later released them. ARAB HEADQUARTERS BOMBED Jewish planes bombed the headquarters of Fawzi el Kawakji, _ com-mander-in-chief of the Arab liberation army, five miles from Nablus, according to Arab reports. ARABS RAID CONVOY Arabs attacked a Jewish convoy of 200 vehicles, which had brought food into Jerusalem. The attack started is the convoy began the return journey to Tel Aviv. Numbers of vehicles were disabled before Haganah forces drove the attackers into the mountains. A Haganah spokesman claimed that 100 Arabs were injured in the raid. He admitted that six Jews were killed, and a number injured. The Haganah announced that Jewish forces broke into the village of Beir Surik, which the Arabs used as advanced headquarters, and demolished it with explosives. Arabs crossed the frontier from Lebanon and occupied the Palestine outposts of Ras Nakura, after British Customs officials had withdrawn. Jews.and Arabs, in the last few months, have stolen at gun point or from parking places, 400 vehicles, including 100 belonging to the Government, which has threatened to requisition all private vehicles if the thefts continue. The Jewish Agency has instructed all Jewish members now serving with the Palestine Government to remain at their posts when the British mandate finishes on May 15, “to pyavent damage to public services”.

U.S. Overtures for U.N.O. Rule Made to Britain

(Rec. 10.5). NEW YORK, April .20. The spokesman of the United Nations said to-day that it would provide troops for Palestine if other countries, which would be selected by the United Nations, would join them. Mr Warren Austin (United States delegate), however, warned the U.N.O. Assembly’s special political committee on Palestine that the United States was not prepared to act alone. He admitted having had talks with certain Governments. These so far have been fruitless. He said: “The United States is willing to undertake its share of responsibility for the provision of police forces that would be required during a truce and a temporary U.N.O. trusteeship, but our participation will be conditioned upon readiness on the part of other Governments to provide similar assistance”. LONDON. April 21.

Reuters diplomatic correspondent at Lake Success says that Britain's answer to the United States’ approach for Britain to provide forces for Palestine, was negative, and her policy was reaffirmed as that of declining—absolutely—to enforce any oolicv in Palestine that had not the support of both Arabs and Jews,, whether alone, or in co-operation with the other members of United Nations.

Mr Warren Austin (U.S.A.) tnen presented as a basis for discussion, an American draft for a three-years trusteeship, which would make tvie United Nations ruler of Palestine through a Governor-General, wno would have the right to determine immigration quotas for Palestine, in accordance with the absorptive capacity of that country, and would also be empowered to determin P me hotly contested land question in Palestine. The general aim of the plan, ivir Austin stressed, was not a formal proposal. The aim was to encourage maximum co-operation between Jews and Arabs, leading to a form of sengovernment acceptable to' both. M. Gromyko reaffirmed support of Russia for partition of Palestine. He said the Soviet would oppose the United States’ plan for a U.N.t). Trusteeship. He said: “The whole world knows that this decision bv United States Government is has been dictated by oil, military and strategic interests of United States.” He said that the American position had dealt a serious blow to * priority of the United Nations.

N.Z. Supports Partition

LAKE SUCCESS, April 20 Sir Carl Berendsen (New Zealand) to-day reaffirmed his country’s support for the partition of Palestine, asserting that if partition with economic union was “right in November, then it is right to-day”. . Speaking at the first meeting of the political committee of the United Nations special Palestine Assembly session, Sir Carl said:. Circumstances have not changed in the slightest—the only new factor . that has arisen is the detestable series oi murders and outrages in Palestine by both sides. I do not suggest that any delegation which voted in fayour oj. partition believed it was the perfect solution. The best that could be done was to find a solution waieh offered the least injustice. The New Zealand Government believed then that partition was the best solution, and it oelieves the same to-day. In our view the Assembly decided last year to do the right thing in the wrong way. When the Assembly agreed on parti-

tion it should also have agreed on the means of implementing it. If now the Assembly allows itself to be forced to abandon its decision because it has been challenged by force, then the Assembly will take upon itself a tragedy for many years to come”, he said. “This is a test case for the United Nations. The future of this organisation and the future of the world may, indeed, depend on the way we decide this question. “What the world needs to-day is not resolutions, but resolution. It is the most earnest hope of my Government that the Assembly will adhere to the principles it accepted last November”. Paper’s Praise for Sir C. Berendsen (Rec. 9.26). MONTREAL, April 20. The New York Times corresoondent at Lake Success described Sir C. Bebendsen’s address to the U.N.O. Political Committee to-day as “one of the most eloquent speeches ever heard in the United Nations”. Sir C. Berendsen, in re-affirming New Zealand support for partition of Palestine, said the issue was a test case that might determine the future of both the United Nations and the world.

British Forces to be Reorganised in Middle East

(Rec. 5.30). LONDON, April 21. Britain’s land forces in the Middle East are to be reorganised, according to the Daily Telegraph military correspondent. This reorganisation, he says, will take place gradually, but it will ultimately mean that the Command is divided into two sub-com-mands, namely the Eastern Mediterranean Commiand, probably controlling all of the land forces from Malta, Greece and Cyprus to the Sudan; and the East African Command, probably controlling all of the land forces from Somaliland and Ugandia to the Zambesi.

The Admiralty has announced that Vice-Admiral G. E. Creasy has been appointed Fifth Sea Lord, and De-puty-Chief of the Naval Air Staff,, in succession to Vice-Admiral Sir Philip V>an, as from September 29. Admiral Creasy, as Rear ; Admiral with aircraft-carriers and air stations of the British Pacific Fleet and the East Indies, visited New Zealand m 1947 in the aircraft-carrier Theseus. PERSONAL ... • • • 6N Mr J. Barrett, Night Foreman on the staff of the “Manawatu Times . Palmerston North, accompanied by Mrs Barrett, arrived yesterday in Greymouth from Westport via the Coast Road, in the course of a tour of the South Island. They will leave by the express this morning en route to Dunedin.