MOSLEMS AROUSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1939, Page 7

MOSLEMS AROUSED

ITALY’S AGGRESSION DENOUNCED IMPETUS TO AGREEMENT IN PALESTINE. ARAB LEADER’S OVERTURE TO JEWS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. The numerous reports reaching London from Moslem countries in the Mediterranean area give evidence of the disillusionment created by the Italian occupation of Albania and the intense indignation aroused. This resentment has found particularly vehement expression in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. In Syria, Jamil Bey Mardam, a former Prime Minister, originally stated the view that the seizure of Albania would have grave repercussions on Arab and Moslem opinion, and reports of later date confirm the rightness of his judgment.

In Iraq the Press has shown great indignation at the fate of Albania, and ironical references to Signor Mussolini’s claim to be the Protector of Arabs and Moslems are common.

Yesterday in Palestine it appears that considerable interest was aroused by a plea for the Jews and Arabs to sink their differences in the face of the totalitarian menace to them both which was made in a letter published in a newspaper over the signature of Anwar Nashashibi, a member of a distinguished Palestinian Arab family. Castigating the Italian annexation of Albania, he said, “May it serve as a lesson to those who see in Signor Mussolini the savour of a people in chains. May it open the eyes of all those Arabs who see in the Rome-Berlin axis thenpath to salvation.” The writer went on to urge that “when the sword of Damocles is hanging over them, the present is the most propitious hour tor the Arabs and the Jews, and indeed all people in the East who believe in human dignity, to liquidate their differences with that spirit of conciliation and good faith, which is necessarily essential to any lasting settlement, and to support with added strength the forces of international honour and decency.”