The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JULY 8, 1946 THE MUFTI RETURNS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 96, 8 July 1946, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JULY 8, 1946 THE MUFTI RETURNS

THE reported re-entry of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, into the arena of Middle East polities makes even more complex the difficulties which Great Britain must overcome in her dealings with the Arab movement. Just how this man, who plunged Palestine into turmoi before his flight in 1937, managed to plan his escape from France in an American plane, as recent messages state, is a story yet to be told. The significant fact is that he is back again and has been greeted with enthusiasm by his countrymen. His presence once more ip Palestine, so shortly alter the announcement of the combined American-British proposals for increased Jewish immigration, will almost certainly be the signal for increased hostility by the Arabs to any further concession to Jewry, a development which may not be altogether unwelcome in some quarters in Britain. The Mufti, in spite of his long exile, still remains the spiritual leader of a large majority of the Palestinian Arabs. He was an uncompromising opponent of the scheme to admit European Jews into the country during the ’3o’s, and he so inflamed his followers against British authority, and promoted such disorders, that he was hunted down and managed to' escape imprisonment only by precipitate flight. As an antagonist of British policy he was naturally made welcome in the camp of Britain’s enemies. Until the outbreak of war 110 remained in the Lebanon, but late in 1939 he crossed the border into Iraq, where he helped to arouse anti-British feeling and assisted Rashid Ali to promote his short-lived revolt. Once again on the run he took refuge with Axis sympathisers in Persia, but the British-Russian occupation of that country drove him to seek temporary security in the Axis capitals. He was finally captured by the French in the invasion of Southern Germany. The person of the Mufti is peculiarly holy to Moslems, and the news that he had been taken prisoner created considerable excitement not only in the Middle East but in other Moslem States. The newspaper Dawn, organ of the All-India Moslem League, issued a warning that the Mufti must not be branded as a war criminal or traitor. “The British Government must realise that the blood of martyrs is not cheap,” the paper said. “If it desires to prevent the holocaust for which the Middle East has been preparing it must immediately secure the release of the Grand Mufti from the French.” This sensitivity of the Moslem world to the interests of its member States has not been overlooked by Britain, and recent developments in Imperial policy indicate that the friendship of these nations is being studiously cultivated. The case of the Mufti is one that will require the most delicate handling, and one false move in dealing with it may cause the loss of all the goodwill that has been so painstakingly acquired.