American and British Soldiers in Palestine Admire Jewish Accomplishments

Praising Jewish achievements in Palestine, especially in the Plain of Sharon, Joseph G. Harrison, correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor with the United Nations Forces in the Middle East, in a cable from Tel Aviv today says that “no fair-minded person passing through here would ever again assert that the Jews are by nature city dwellers, and incapable of tiling the soil successfully.”

“I have made it a point,” Mr. Harrison cables, “to question a number of British and American soldiers here on leave regarding their attitude and opinion on the Arab-Jewish question and I have discovered a strong general feeling of admiration for Jewish accomplishments in Palestine. This feeling of friendliness toward the Jewish cause is strongly reinforced by the reception which the troops have received in this all-Jewish city and which is in strong contrast to the feeling of many men that the Arabs are unfriendly and only interested in charging the highest possible prices.

“Numerous soldiers and officers, while admitting the justice of Arab contentions, expressed the belief, ‘Palestine should be given to the Jews, or ‘the Jews should be allowed to come here as much as they want,'” Mr. Harrison continues. “Although such opinions may not be derived from the deep study of the Palestinian problem it is not impossible that they will have an important effect when the time comes to make a final settlement of the Holy Land question after the war.

“Furthermore a walk down Tel Aviv streets is enough to convince any person who makes even a pretense at character reading that it is extremely unlikely that the Jews will ever accept any solution of the Palestine problem which they feel betrays their interpretation of the Balfour Declaration promising them a national home here. This doesn’t mean that a solution is impossible, but it does mean that Palestine remains today one of the thorniest problems facing Britain and the Allies,” the cable concludes.