BITTER STRIFE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26748, 17 April 1948, Page 6

BITTER STRIFE

FATE OF PALESTINE ARABS NUMERICALLY STRONGER Unless the United Nations can arrange a truce between the two parties in Palestine there will be a bitter war in which the advantage will be with the numerically-superior Arabs. This opinion was expressed to the Daily Times by Dr Edgar L. Farrow, who has been chairman of the Field Council of the Egypt General Mission during the past two years and has served as a missionary in Egypt for the past 20 years. Dr Farrow, who is spending his furlough in New Zealand before returning to Egypt, is also senior medical superintendent of the Hospital Mission at Shebin el Kanater. Dr Farrow feels that the Arabs have the weight of numbers on their side and he believes that they have been able to obtain large supplies of arms. Most of .these came from German dumps found in the desert and smuggled into Palestine. The Jews, he says, are well trained and may have some modern equipment, but the Arabs are expert desert and guerrilla fighters and he thinks they would prove the victors. “ I believe Jews and Arabs can get on well together." Dr Farrow said. ‘ I have proof of that in a village in Palestine where they live in perfect harmony. I hate to think what the war will be like. The two sides will probably fight it out, for I am sure no other nation will step in to take Britain’s place, and I doubt if the United Nations will be able to provide a police force to keep the peace.” Dr Farrow said that the antiBritish feeling in Egypt was more vocal than serious. Only about 5 per cent of the people were anti-British and most of these were in Cairo and Alexandria.