ANXIETY IN PALESTINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26544, 20 August 1947, Page 5

ANXIETY IN PALESTINE

Committee’s Decision Keenly Awaited FORM OF PARTITION EXPECTED Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 19. Both the Arabs and the Jews are now preparing for the day when a decision is likely to be reached on Palestine by. the United Nations committee in Geneva, says the Jerusalem correspondent of The Times. Reports have multiplied, particularly in the Jewish press, that the committee will suggest a form of partition. These reports have made the Arabs uneasy, and they are beginning to see that some concessions must be made to the Jews. That the committee will propound a pro-Arab solution —an independent Arab State in Palestine as at present constituted—seems unlikely, and the Jewish leaders, aware of this, are advising their community to take security precautions lest the Arabs should rise as before. Terrorists are being asked to lay down their arms and cease separate campaigns, so that all forces can be centralised. The first question occupying all minds is the form of the United Nations decision and a second and complementary question is, Will Britain remain? The problem of who will execute the United Nations decision promises to be thornier even than what the decision will be. The chances that a United Nations police force will be set up are not great, and the only alternative agency is Britain. Opinions expressed in Britain that the British should withdraw have been widely reported in the Palestine press. The Jews seem to welcome such a possibility, but the Arabs are less certain. If Britain remains in Palestine, her view of any United Nations solution will be of some importance, and it is being suggested in Jerusalem that the United Nations committee might try to co-ordinate its decisions with her.