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Laborites in Commons Meet Today to Consider Palestine Issue; Critical of Bevin

March 3, 1948
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The Palestine Government attack yesterday on the Jewish Agency which threatened to deprive Jews of Palestine of military protection ## considered in Zionist quarters here as a maneuver to offset mounting criticism in British political and church circles of Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin’s policy in Palestine.

Parliamentary members of the Labor party are meeting tomorrow to consider a resolution proposed by the Political Committee of the party condemning British foreign Policy in general and the Palestine policy in particular. The political Committee adopted the resolution by a vote of 16 to 3.

Although it is expected that Bevin’s policy will, on the whole, be approved at tomorrow’s meeting, it is nevertheless certain that a large number of Laborites will express strong resentment against the present Palestine policy. The cable which ?4 Labor MP’s sent last week to U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie supporting the U.N. Palestine partition decision has made a tremendous impression here. It is expected that these 45, who include many who were previously indifferent to the issue, will be Bevin’s chief critics tomorrow.

Unexpected support for the Zionist cause came today from the Church of England. The two official organs of the Church–The Record and the British Weekly–carry some of the most outspoken criticism of the British policy on Palestine ever voiced in the British press. "There can be no impartiality between right and wrong and between justice and injustice," The Record writes. "The only consistent course would be for the United Nations to declare the Jews as allies and defenders of world conscience. The Haganah might logically be appointed as the international force in Palestine."

The British Weekly attacks the refusal of the British Government to admit the U.N. Palestine Commission to Palestine. The Church organ says that it is doubtful that the Arabs would have been so violently intransigent had Britain not made it clear that she would not in any way assist in carrying out the U.N. decision.

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