Britain Will Continue to Supply Arabs, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 1948.

“We have never taken the view that, because we approved of the Jewish national home, we were therefore anti-Arab.” – British Deputy Prime Minister Herbert Morrison

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LONDON, May 19 (AP)-Britain announced today she will continue to give financial aid and military equipment to Trans-Jordan’s Arab Legion and to other Arab states “unless and until the United Nations finds these countries have been acting illegally in Palestine.”

A Foreign Office spokesman told a news conference Britain saw “no reason at all” to depart from her treaty obligations with Mid-Eastern Arab states because of their actions in the Holy Land.”

Those treaties contain military clauses under which Britain supplies arms. Under the Trans-Jordan treaty. King Abdullah’s Arab Legion also receives a British subsidy of £2,000,000 ($8,000,000) a year. Britain trains and equips the armies of Egypt and Iraq.

NOT AGGRESSORS

The spokesman indicated Britain believes Trans-Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq should not be considered aggressors unless it could be proved they are attacking another state. He said-

“Until we know whether the Jewish authorities can effectively administer the country, until the boundaries have been announced and until we know they are capable of fulfilling their international obligations, we cannot recognize their existence.”

(Whitehall sources said, according to United Press, that the boundary situation in Palestine was confused. They said the Jews had stepped over their frontier, as outlined by the U. N., in seizing Jaffa and Acre. There was no indication, they said, whether these Jewish actions were temporary military measures, or whether it involved the territorial ambitions of the new Jewish state.)

The spokesman said 40 British officers were serving with the Arab Legion in Palestine. He said Brigadier John Glubb, the Briton who leads the Arab Legion, was directly appointed to his post by King Abdullah after being transferred from the Palestine government, of which he was an official.

RECENT TREATY

The spokesman said 30 of these officers were sent directly by the British under the recently negotiated British-Trans-Jordan treaty of alliance. The remaining 10 were engaged directly by the Trans-Jordan government.

As the British laid down this stand, Deputy Prime Minister Herbert Morrison was telling the ruling Labor party’s annual conference at Scarborough-

“We have never taken the view that, because we approved of the Jewish national home, we were therefore anti-Arab. Indeed, one of the ambitions of the government is to develop a new and prosperous Middle East.

“There must come a time when the fighting and bloodshed will cease, and if our government can do anything to terminate the unhappy bloodshed, they will take every opportunity of doing so.

“I would like to send an appeal to the Jews and Arabs in Palestine and in the Middle East, both of whom have such a long history behind them. I would beg of them to try to come together, try to cooperate for the good of the land.”

The British section of the World Jewish Congress urged Britain to seek U. N. action for protection of Jews in Arab countries. In a letter to Foreign Secretary Bevin, Lev Zeinamovitz, secretary general, said the Congress has information of “indiscriminate persecution of the Jewish population in Egypt.”