POLICY SUPPORTED BRITAIN IN PALESTINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 5

POLICY SUPPORTED

BRITAIN IN PALESTINE

ARCHBISHOP’S VIEWS LONDON, July 8. “ There are very many like myself who regard anti-semitism as a devilish poison but feel bound to approve the Government’s action, which is not anti-semitism,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffery Fisher, addressing a diocesan conference. He added that those who tried to confuse the Government’s action and antisemitism were guilty of great disservice to the public interest both in Palestine and in Britain. The Archbishop urged a decisive declaration of policy regarding Palestine, saying that after the recent Government action there he received from the Chief Rabbi in Palestine and from others communications which seemed to beg Ine wrong questions. Mr Attlee’s statement in the House of Commons was based on evidence which

had not yet been made public. That evidence should be given promptly and fully, but Mr Attlee justified the action. If further justification were needed it could be found in the discovery of huge stores of arms and ammunition hidden thoroughly and ingeniously, the mere possession of which was a lawless threat to public order and security. A group of correspondents visited the Rafa detention camp in South Palestine to test the Jewish Agency allegations of tortures, in which the correspondents sought 16 of the detained men whom the agency specifically mentioned. They found none of them had '• fingernails raised ” or “ hair pulled out,” as the Jewish Agency had alleged. Jews throughout Brazil closed their businesses to-day to organise a mass protest meeting against British policy in Palestine. The Zionist Society estimated that there are 120,000 Jews in Brazil, including 12,000 merchants in Rio de Janeiro and 15,000 in Sao Paulo.