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Crum on Palestine, United Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 11, 1948.

UN Partition PlanLegalize Haganah, Attorney Urges, Accuses Forrestal of Oil Interests

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CLEVELAND, March 10 (U.P.)—Enforcement of the U. N. decision to partition Palestine can be accomplished by legalizing the Haganah, the Jewish militia in the Holy Land, Bartley Crum, San Francisco attorney and author, said tonight.

A member of the former Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine and author of “Behind the Silken Curtain,” Crum addressed 5000 persons at a “Save the U. N.” mass meeting here. His talk was sponsored by the Jewish Community Council and the American-Christian Palestine Committee.

“The U. S. embargo on military equipment should be lifted so that the Haganah can be armed and token Danish, Belgian and Dutch troops can be sent into Palestine to help the U. N. commission,” Crum said. He added “I would rather see enforcement not by the U. S. or Russia but by nations without interest in the Near Eastern oil.”

Crum said Palestine “is no longer only a Jewish problem. It is tied to world peace.” He said failure to support partition would be akin to doing what the League of Nations did when Japan invaded Manchuria.

“We’ll be putting the first nail in the U. N. coffin.” he asserted.

‘U. S. WELCHED’

Crum added that the U. S. had “watched on its own policy in the Palestine decision” because of “Arabian oil.”

He assailed Secretary of Defenses Forrestal and said he “should be in no position to act as judge on the Palestine issue.”

Crum said Forrestal’s position in the Cabinet was a powerful one insofar as making decisions on the Palestine question were concerned.

“Forrestal’s position on the Palestine problem may be motivated by his connections as former president of Dillon, Reid and Co., a banking house which participated in floating of large loans for Standard Oil and the Texas Company, both heavily involved in oil operations in the Middle East.”

Crum said the Arab states were not fighting the Jews as much as they are carrying on acts of aggression “against the only the place in the world where the U. N. will have sovereign power as of May 15.”

ARMS BAN

“It is incredible to me that President Truman should tolerate an arms embargo directed against the only force in the Middle East—the Haganah—which is resisting this aggression.

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