Pitiable Condition Of Arab Refugees

Chronicle (Levin), 31 March 1949, Page 5

Pitiable Condition Of Arab Refugees

Received Wednesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, March 30. The Archbishop of York (Dr. Garbett) in the Lords dealing with the Arai) refugee problem said it was generally recognised that there were about 800,000 Palestinian refugees driven from the land tliey had occupied for nearly 1000 years. It would be an act oL gross injustice if United Nations accepted the position ''that tliese people who were driven atyay by terror a^e never to be allowed to retiirn to. their homes again. There is no hope of permanent peace in Palestine if bitterness and a passionate desire for revenge remain among the refugee Arahs. "Israel should show a conciliatory spirit towards them. I.t is essential to save the refugees from death and starvation and give them hope for the future." * Viscount Swinton said the Arab refugees tragedy should touch the hearts of all thinking Jews. They more than any other race had lniown the misery of exile and persecution. It would he a strange thing if the first result of the establishment of a Jewish State should he that other human beings should suffer as horribly as some of the worst sufferings Jews had ever experienced in their persecution. He said in the long run Israel was dependent economically upon the surrounding Arab countries. Lord Henderson, in his reply, said the refugee problem was pitiable and tragic. There was no ground for complacency, and the fact that the refugees were being kept alive did not mean that the problem was even on the way to solution. Government reports showed that apathy and hopelessness were setting in among the refugees. He recalled Britain's contribution of £1,000,000 to the United Nations relief scheme. Britain believed that the urgent. refugee problem should be kept before the United Nations Assembly.