Bevin’s Charges Against Truman on Palestine Issue Are Considered “tactless”

Declaring that British Foreign Secretary Bevin was “tactless” in charging that President Truman wrecked the settlement of the Palestine problem, the New York Herald Tribune says today that Bevin’s statement “is calculated fiercely to enrage most parties” to the Palestine problem.

Mr. Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary, appears to have spoken yesterday out of the angry heart of an overtried man, the Tribune editorial states. “And, as usual in such cases, what he said is unlikely to do any one any good anywhere. The flat charge that President Truman (and Governor Devey) ruined a possible settlement in Palestine last October by playing irresponsible domestic politics with the anguished issue is calculated fiercely to enrage most parties to the problem; while the added charge that American Jewry, by its passionate intransigence, wrecked negotiations which Jews “who had been trained in England and had grown up in British customs” might have pursued to success will implant a deep resentment in those who might not have minded the first allegation. In an issue already surcharged with the most intense bitterness, the effect of this can scarcely be helpful.

“Yet it is apparent that berating Mr. Bevin will not advance a Palestine solution,” the editorial continues. “There will be plenty of voices to tell him angrily that he was by no means so near a settlement last October as he now believes; but how many will also realize the truth that more pressure from this country (whether exerted by the President, by other politicians or by American Jewry) cannot settle anything, either, until it is backed by a national willingness to take corresponding responsibility? The issue is now passing from Britain to the United Nations. But U.N. will be as helpless as the British unless this country can be brought to agreement, not simply on words, but on a policy which Administration, Congress and the people will support.”

SUMMER WELLES CRITICIZES BEVIN; SAYS PARTITION MAY BE BEST SOLUTION

Summer Welles, former Under-Secretary of State, in a syndicated article today, declared that “the British decision to refer the Palestine problem to the United Nations has been taken just a year too late.” Had the British Government submitted its Palestine mandate to the United Nations when the new international organization was first established, and pressed for the prompt creation of the International Trusteeship Council, a just and final solution of the whole controversy could by now have been found,” Mr. Welles writes. “The bitter and needless tragedies of the last few months could have been prevented. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees now wasting in European concentration camps would today be afforded a present refuge and the certainty of future security,” he points out.

Declaring that “Bevin’s course with regard to Palestine has been marked by blindness as to the human and moral values, and by a total lack of understanding of the international dangers involved,” Mr. Welles urges that the Palestine issue be brought before the U.N.Security Council. Expressing doubt as to whether the establishment of Palestine as a bi-national state is now possible, the former Under-Secretary of State writes:

“It may well be that the only practical solution that can now be found is some form of partition, and the creation of a purely Jewish state with resources adequate to insure economic prosperity, and large enough in extent to afford refuge to the homeless Jews in Europe.

“The nature of the solution to be found has now fortunately become a matter for international determination. What is, however, imperative is that neither the prejudices and the passion for procrestination of Mr. Bevin nor empty technicalities be permitted to cause further delay and that an immediate start be made to and the Palestine tragedy.”