TREATY OBLIGATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 5

TREATY OBLIGATION

British Aid to Arab States

AMERICAN CRITICS ANSWERED

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright. Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, May 24. London comment on the United States Congressional Committee inquiry as to whether Britain is using Marshall Plan aid to help the Arab armies and to the unofficial American demands that Britain should “ stop supplying arms to Arab countries,” is that Britain so far has not received any Marshall Plan aid and that any war material from Britain to Arab countries is sent only under treaty contractual obligations, says the diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Britain, under the Transjordan Treaty, has contracted to help to train King Abdullah’s army. Treaty provisions for mutual military help cannot be applied because it has not yet been decided whether Transjordan is at war and neither Transjordan nor Britain has recognised Israel as a State. [The announcement of an inquiry by the committee was made after Senator Owen Brewster 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 Times, deploring the divergence of British and United States policies over Palestine, says an appropriate resolution by the Security Council would justify the withdrawal of British officers from action in Palestine without exposing Britain to charges of a breach'of faith; and the suspension of the delivery of British arms to Arab countries would follow automatically from a United States decision to cut off military supplies from all countries. Israel Issues Cease-fire Order New Zealand Press Association—Reuter’s —Copyright. WASHINGTON, May 23. Israel to-day gave a cease-fire order on all fronts, effective at 8 p.m. Jerusalem time to-morrow. The action followed the Security Council demand, issued on Saturday, for a cease-fire in Palestine. A London message says that the British Foreign Office has received official confirmation of the Jewish Agency decision to call a cease-fire in Palestine to-morrow. A spokesman said it was hoped that the Arabs would also order a cease-fire. In Cairq, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Khashaba Pasha, said: “"We will do our best to reply to the United Nations order within the requested 36 hours.”

The America!! Vice-Consul in Jerusalem, Mr William Burdett, cabled the State Department in Washington that the Jewish Agency had given him the following message:—“ The Provisional Government of Israel has ordered a cease-fire on all fronts as from 8 p.m. local Jewish time on Monday. If the other side ceases fire at any earlier hour then the Jewish cease-fire order comes into effect at that earlier hour. If, after 8 p.m., the other side does not cease fire the Jewish defence must continue.” Mr Burdett is acting United States representative on the United Nations Truce Commission following the death of Mr Thomas Wasson, American Con-sul-general in Jerusalem, who was fatally wounded yesterday by a sniper’s bullets. The State Department made no comment on Mr Burdett’s message. Britain welcomes the decision of the United Nations Security Council calling upon both sides in Palestine to cease fire within 36 hours, says Reuter's diplomatic correspondent in London. Britain believes this will ore vent the United States from precipitately lifting the arms embargo in favour of the Jewish State. Such a United States decision would be

garded in London as a most serious threat to Anglo-American relations. The British Foreign Secretary. Mr Ernest Bevin, is authoritatively reported to have -told Mr Lewis Douglas, the United States Ambassador to Britain, at a meeting yesterday in London, that it was vital that Britain and the United States should not drift apart on the Palestine issue. Britain’s immediate aim seems to be to build a new foundation for a truce, with Britain and the United States resolutely backing it. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a representative organisation of British Jewry, has appealed to the British Government “to reverse its policy of supplying Arab States with arms and money.” . The board 'alleged that the Arab States were being used to resist the carrying out of the United Nations decision favouring the partition of Palestine. The board added: “ This policy is in contradiction of all the noble ideals for which Britain stood in the past. It has culminated in the attack upon the Holy City, led by British officers and fed by British money and arms.” The board hoped that Britain would recognise Israel, and “ complete the process begun by the Balfour Declaration.”