NEW ARAB BODY FORMED

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24907, 21 June 1946, Page 7

NEW ARAB BODY FORMED

Mufti, Now In Cairo, To Be President

RECEPTION BY KING FAROUK (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ( Ree 7 - 30 R LONDON, Jone 19. The new Arab Higher Executive was formed in Jerusalem yesterday,” says the correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph. ‘"Hie Executive left the Mufti CT vacant for the Grand “It is understood that the Mufti has been staying at the Syrian Legation in Egvpt since he left France with a forged passport.” "An Egyptian Cabinet communique has confirmed that King Farouk received the Grand Mufti,*’ says Reuter s correspondent in Cairo. ‘Jp? communique said that the Mufti had placed himself in the hands of the Egyptian Royal Family as a refugee, ft added that the Mufti, at ° P-in. °n June 19, ‘arrived suddenly a t , e Bplace. When the news reached King Farouk he gave permission for an audience.’ ” Reuter’s correspondent adds that events appear to bear out the French claim that the Grand Mufti travelled with a Syrian passport and took off in an American aircraft from the only P ear Paris on May 29. The Mufti signed the Palace register as “Mufti of Palestine.” The Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press says that the Egyptian Prime Minister (Sidky Pasha) saw the Mufti. Sidky Pasha said: “Arabs traditionally must give refuge to anyone who asks.” “The Grand Mufti will organise the struggle to end the colonisation of Zionism in Palestine,” declared one of the Egyptian newspapers, all of which warmly welcomed the Mufti’s' arrival in Egypt. The newspapers declare that the Mufti is now in absolute safety and that no one can totich or harm him.