Transjordan Proclaimed an Independent State; Will Apply for Admission to U.n.o.

Transjordan, which since 1922 has been a part of the Palestine Mandate, became a sovereign, independent state at 12:45 this afternoon, when it signed a treaty of mutual assistance and alliance with Britain.

The text of the treaty will not be made public before it is presented to Parliament early next week. The document terminating the Mandate and guaranteeing Transjordan’s independence was signed at a ceremony in the Foreign Office, with Under-Secretary of Colonies Arthur Creech-Jones signing for the British Government and Ibrahim Pasha Hashim for Emir Abdullah, the ruler of Transjordan.

(United States recognition of Transjordan as an independent state will follow only after its expected application for membership in the United Nations Organization is accepted by the UNO, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was told today by the State Department. For the present, the American Consul General in Jerusalem, who is accredited to Transjordan, will continue to represent the U.S.)

The military provisions of the treaty are believed here to include mutual assistance in the event of either of the contracting parties becoming involved in a war, including the grant of communication facilities to Britain by Transjordan. They also are reported to stipulate that Transjordan must provide facilities for British protection of the vital oil pipelines running through the country from Iraq to Haifa, in Palestine.

The main political provisions are believed to be: 1. Britain to sponsor Transjordan’s application for membership in the United Nations Organization. 2. An exchange of diplomatic representatives. 3. Neither country shall adopt an attitude to any third country inconsistent with their mutual friendship.

TREATY CALLED A “ONE-SIDED ARRANGEMENT;” JEWISH AGENCY NOT CONSULTED

While leaders of the Jewish Agency refrained from commenting on the termination of the Transjordan Mandate, Rabbi Philip Bernstein of Rochester, who arrived here today from the United States to participate in the drive for the United Palestine Appeal in Britain, told representatives of the British press that he believes that the independence of Transjordan would be “an irritant.” He explained that “the treaty signed today is a one-sided arrangement made without consulting either the Jewish Agency or the United States.”

“Transjordan was part of Palestine when the Balfour Declaration was made and the Palestine Mandate was granted, Rabbi Bernstein stated. “The independence of Transjordan seems to place finality on the exclusion of the Jews from that region.” He deplored the fact that under her treaty of independence Transjordan “would be deprived of the opportunity of progressing. The difference between Transjordan and Palestine is that between day and night. In Transjordan there is abysmal poverty, degradation and ignorance as contrasted with a modern world of education, sanitation, public health, electricity and everything else in Palestine.”