Suggestion, on Conditional Basis, Is Extended to Safeguard Holy Places
CAIRO. April 28 (UP).-The Arab League proposed today a conditional truce in Jerusalem fighting to safeguard the holy places “equally sacred for Moslems, Christians and Jews.”
The League set three conditions-
1. Cessation of the struggle within the city. plus a ban against any attack from outside.
2. Arab and Jewish guards in Jerusalem to be armed.
3. Respect for the status quo which existed in Jerusalem before fighting broke out.
An Arab League note to foreign embassies and legations here said the proposal is made because people throughout the world are worried over the possible fate of Jerusalem and its shrines.
“Thus, Arabs are disposed to accept any measure destined to safeguard the holy places inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.” the note said. Arabs also would be agreeable to extending the truce to other areas, such as the Mount of Olives, which is outside the Old City, it added.
The Arab League said it would pay part of the cost entailed in the creation of any bodyguard charged with supervising and maintaining a truce and suggested that the guard members be drawn from religious groups.
Meanwhile, the afternoon newspaper “Al Balagh” said Brigadier Ahmed All el-Mawawi would command Egyptian forces which eventually will invade Palestine. It estimated the expeditionary force at 8,000 men equipped with machine guns, anti-tank weapons and field artillery.
Other reports estimated the force at 5,000 officers and men who already are stationed along the Egypt-Palestine frontier or are being transferred there.
Iraq Regent Vows Action
AMMAN. Trans-Jordan, April 28 (AP).-Regent Emir Abdul Ilah of Iraq said tonight that “all Arab countries are completely agreed to rescue Palestine, and their official armies will soon take action.”
He made his statement here during a conference with King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan; Abdul Rahman Axxam Pasha, secretary general of the Arab League, and the Defense and Foreign Ministers of Iraq and Trans-Jordan.
The Trans-Jordan Foreign Minister said that “all Arab regular armies will take action long before May 15.”
The Iraqi leaders flew here from Calro today and were closeted with Kink Abdullah for four hours.
Arab Troops in Jericho
JERUSALEM. April 28 (AP).-King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan, ignoring British denials, told a reporter in Amman today that his Arab Legionnaires had occupied the Biblical town of Jericho, twenty miles northeast of Jerusalem, with “scout troops which always precede the regular army.”
The reporter went directly to Jericho, where he was told by the Legion commander that the troops were there only under British orders to protect British evacuation routes from Palestine.
Arabs Occupy Village
BEIRUT. Lebanon. April 28 (UP).-The Trans-Jordan Legation here reported that Arab Legion forces had occupied the Jewish settlement of Keshet on the Palestine-Trans-Jordan frontier today after a battle in which more than eighty Jews were wounded.