JEWS BAR REFUGEES FROM RETURNING TO THEIR HOMES

Grey River Argus, 9 August 1948, Page 5

JEWS BAR REFUGEES FROM RETURNING TO THEIR HOMES

(Rec 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, Aug 8. Count Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator, declared tnat the condition of the Arab refugees in Ramallah in Palestine, was “appalling,” says an Associated Press correpondent at the island of Rhodes. “The best thing would be for most of the refugees to return home, put that is at present impossible. The Jewish Provisional Government is not inclined to allow them to return home except in compassionate cases, Count Bernadotte sai&. Arab political circles in Damascus expect both the Arab League and the Palestine Arab High Committee to reject the Jewish proposal for a roundtable peace conierence. The influential Cairo newspaper, Al Ahram, described the proposal as “unthinkable.” A United Nations spokesman said in Haifa that all proposals for the future of Jerusalem had been dropped. SOVIET'S SUPPORT OF JEWS A correspondent of the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune, in a message from Tel Aviv, says that through its' consistent espousal of Israel's case in the United Nations and its willingness to supply arms to the Jewish forces, Soviet Russia has greatly enhanced its prestige in the new Jewish State. The Jews have made some of their most important arms purchases through Czechoslovakia, and the Jews know that these arms would never have been sold to them if Russia had not given the word. Russian influence has greatly increased as a result of recent events. The Hebrew press is full of leading articles praising Russia, and in recent months it has carefully refrained from printing anything derogatory to the Soviet.

“The importance of this Jewish sympathy for Russia must not be underrated, because incredible as it may have seemed six months ago, the Jews of Palestine are to-day a front-rank military Power in the Middle East. The prejudice in favour of Russia they are now > developing may colour the future of the Middle East for years after the Arab-Jewish conflict has been settled.”