UNEASINESS SHARED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26633, 2 December 1947, Page 5

UNEASINESS SHARED

VIEWS OF NEW ZEALAND DELEGATE. Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 1. Many UNO delegates in the Palestine partition debate clearly shared the uneasiness of the New Zealand representative, Sir Carl Berendsen, at the failure of the committee and later Ihe Assembly to take sufficient notice of the British refusal to accept responsibility—of a kind never contemplated in the mandate—for imposing by force any plan unacceptable both to the Jews and Arabs, says The Times in a leader. The committee’s final recommendations were plainly inadequate for filling the gap that will arise on the withdrawal of British civil and military machinery which at present ensures law and order in Palestine. There is no sign that the commission entrusted rwith partitioning Palestine will be able to call upon the services of the international military force provided by UNO. Some doubt also exists whether the powers assigned to the Security Council under the Charter suffice to cover the coercive measures which the threatened Arab opposition may entail, concluded The Times. Tension in Palestine

Tension is mounting throughout Palestine according to reports reaching the Arab Higher Committee now holding an emergency meeting in Jerusalem, says Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent. British headquarters announced that all British troops except those on garrison duty in Jerusalem were confined to barracks. Six Jews have been killed in Palestine since the United Nations vote. Jewish sources reported that five Jews were killed and 11 wounded in Arab attacks on Jewish buses. ■Arabs at Nablus declared a strike as a protest against the United Nations decision. Demonstrators in Jaffa paraded shouting: “ Down with the United Nations.” Musa Bay Alanu. Director-general of the Arab Office in London, issued a statement clanning that the United Nations had decided to liquidate an entire nation in its own homeland, and to give its country' to another people. “The United Nations decided tnat majorities shall be suppressed and aggression upheld. It has set Arabs and Jews in the Middle East irrevocably again > each other, and make war inevitable,” the statement said. It added that the United States, subservient to Jewish influence in the American elections, was determined that the Zionists should have their State in Palestine. Britain had shown a pusillanimous passivity which contributed largely to the present situation. . . In Cairo the secretary-general of the Arab League. Abd-el Ralman Azzam Pasha, said the partitioning of Palestine meant war against the Jews.; He added that Arab countries would not permit the United Nations decision to be implemented. He predicted a long struggle, declaring that Palestine’s fate would be decided in Palestine itself. “We will fight, and we are preparing for victory,” he said. The Arab Higher Organisation has ordered a country-wide general strike for three days, beginning on Decembei 2, says Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent.

Boycott of Jews

The organisation also ordered a boycott of Jews, and declared that anybody dealing with a Jew would be considered a traitor. The organisation resolved to organise non-co-opera-tion in preparation for declaring a state of emergency in Palestine. The organisation decided to inform the Palestine High Commissioner, General Sir Alan Cunningham, that it considered Britain was solely responsible for partition, since the Arabs considered Britain refused to hand Palestine over to the Arab inhabitants. -The organisation also declared that Britain's “ failure ” might lead, to the Arabs breaking off diplomatic relations with Britain.