BRITAIN’S SILENCE STRONGLY CRITICISED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26779, 24 May 1948, Page 5

BRITAIN’S SILENCE STRONGLY CRITICISED

New Zealand Press Association —Copyright Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, May 22. Criticising the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, for his continued refusal to make a statement on Palestine, and emphasising il his persistent opposition to Zionism, the Manchester Guardian in a leading article says: “ What cocerns us now is the suspicion—some would say conviction—that the British Government, having failed to prevent the establishment of a Jewish State, and its recognition by Russia, the United States and others, is secretly supporting the Arab States in a combined effort to destroy it. There is only one honourable course for the Government. It must advise the Aiab States publicly to accept the Jewish State and stop attacking it. In any case, we should immediately recall Brigadier Glubb Pasha and all other British officers from the Legion.” Mr Lewis Douglas, the American Ambassador in London, called on Mr Bevin to-day to discuss the Palestine situation and its repercussions upon Anglo-American relations. A Foreign Office spokesman denied the report that Britain had asked the American State Department for an early meeting on Palestine, and added that the Foreign Office was continually in touch with the Department on Palestine. '' Declaring that Britain had the power to bring peace to Jerusalem, Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog told Reuter’s Tel-Aviv correspondent that he was sending The Times, London, a letter stating that Arab Legion forces under the command of British officers for the past week had been indiscriminately bombarding the Holy City with British guns and shells, damaging or destroying churches, convents, synagogues, hospitals and monasteries. “ I cannot believe that the British people are fully aware of what is being done with the weapons that its Government has put in the hands of this Arab force,” he said. The diplomatic correspondent of The Times says it is pointed out in London that any war material being sent from Britain to the Arab States is strictly confined to honouring existing contracts under her treaty obligations. No other arms are permitted to be exported to the Middle-East and no further contracts are being entered into. In Washington, Senator Styles Bridges (Republican, New Hampshire), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that his committee W9uld conduct an investigation to determine whether Britain was using United States financial aid to help the Arab armies fight the Jews. Senator Bridges made the announcement after Senator Owen Brewster (Republican, Maine) declared in the Senate that Britain was supplying the Transjordan force with British officers and £8,000,000 a year “ out of American taxpayers’ money.” The Bridges committee has yet to vote on the 5,300,000,000 dollars fund for the first year’s European Recovery Programme. The committee has sufficient power to place limitations on the amount of aid given to Britain when the appropriations are allocated.