Commentators In The Sunday Papers Criticise Kevin And British Policy On Palestine

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1949, Page 5

Commentators In The Sunday Papers Criticise Kevin And British Policy On Palestine

LONDON, Jan. 15 (Rec. 6 pm).—Commentators in the Sunday papers criticise British policy on Palestine, particularly the handling of the situation by Mr. Ernest Bevin.

“Suspicion that Mr. Bevin does not want a settlement until Israel has been given a knock—presumably by us—cannot be avoided,” says “The Observer,” in an editorial. “It is impossible not to feel anxiety over the build up of British forces at Akaba. This action contravenes the Security Council’s resolution of May 29, that fighting personnel should not be introduced into any Middle Eastern country. If anyone wished to provoke a frontier incident he could not choose a place better fitted for his purpose. ’ ’ In the “Sunday Pictorial" Mr. Richard Crossman, Labour member of Parliament, who is now in Palestine, says: “The bon e of contention is the Negev, whose strategic value to Britain has increased by suspected largescale iron or e deposits as well as uranium and oil.” A Conservative member of Parliament, Mr. Robert Boothby, said in the “News of the World”: “Let the people of Britain say plainly to Mr. Bevin

that they are not prepared to go to war with Israel or quarrel deeply and dangerously with the Unted States 1 in order to satisfy his personal feelings. ’ I The well-known political commen- ' tator, Alastair Forbes, said in the | “Sunday Dispatch”: “Britain and the world wait in vain for sign of method ;in Mr. Bevins midwinter madness, j Mr. Bevin has allowed Russia to dis- ' cover that Britain’s strength in the Near East has been a bluff.” The Conservatives have given Mr. Ernest Bevin mor e generous treatment than to any Foreign Secretary in modern times, but the Midd.e East muddle was really intolerable, said Mr. Harold MacMillan, addressing his I constituents at Bromley, Kent. i “We find ourselves, after 30 years ' of generous effort on their behalf, biti terly hated by the Jews,” he said. “We I are suspected by the Arabs, we failed |to win the Americans’ sympathy and co-operation; we are being outmanoeuvred by the Russians. Yet the i Middle East is vital to our security, i strategically and economically. We have almost thrown away in a few ■ months the fruits of years of peaceful i labour and of two bloody wars-” — i Reuter.

British Liberals Want Britain To Recognise Israel State

LONDON, Jan. 16 (Rec. 6 pm).— “The situation in the Middle East is so tense that anything might happen including war," Mr. Clement Davies, leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, told a meeting called “to protest against the Government’s mishandling of the Palestine situation.” Steps that led to the shooting down of the R.A.F. planes were in line with a whole series of other actions taken by the Government, the effect of which had been to foment trouble and fan the flames of war, said Mr. Davies. “I fear all these incidents drive one to one conclusion only—that the

British Government does not wish any settlement in Palestine except one of its own making, to which everybody else is expected to agree,” he said A resolution moved by Lord Moynihan was carried demanding immediate recognition of the State of Israel by the British Government, which also was asked to support Israel’s application for admission to the United Nations. Sir Andrew McFadyean, president elect of the Liberal Party, said it was obvious that a settlement would have to he imposed by force, and it was a cardinal error in which the British Government was not the only guilty party not to recognise it.