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Israel Delegation at U.h. Gees Instructions to Charge Britain with Breach of Truce

January 11, 1949
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The Israeli delegation at Lake Success has been instructed to charge Britain at the U.N. Security Council with a breach of truce in connection with the landing of British forces at the Transjordan port of Aqaba, it was announced here today.

An Israeli spokesman today charged that “if Britain wants to torpedo the Egyp-tian-Israeli armistice tails it could not do better” than its present marshalling of land, sea and air forces at Aqaba, He described the British moves in the “war of nerves” as not providing the proper setting for the forthcoming negotiations at Rhodes.

Acting U.N. mediator Ralph J, Bunche has advised Israel and Egypt to send to the Rhodes talks three or four high army officers, each, and two senior Foreign Office officials. He also informed the two governments that the talks will not be on a minis-terial level. The Israeli Cabinet, meanwhile, has decided to hold up the appointment of its representatives to the parley until it sees the rank of the Egyptian representatives.

LAST ISRAELI TROOPS LEAVE EGYPTIAN TERRITORY

An official announcement here tonight said that the last Israeli troops left Egyptian soil yesterday. The Jewish soldiers withdrew from a height overlooking the Rafa-Auja road which is some three miles inside Egypt and which they captured last week.

The British have made a third attempt to deliver their note of protest over the downing of five R.A.F. planes by Israeli forces last week. Last night the British consul general in Haifa phoned Harry Beilin, Israeli Foreign Office official in Haifa, and offered to make changes in the address of his original communication to the “Jewish authorities.” He said that his “now instructions” were to deliver his note and an accompanying memorandum to the “Israeli Government” and that he would send Beilin a note to that effect this morning.

However, today the Briton phoned Beilin and said that he had “exceeded his in-structions” and would merely send a cover letter addressed to Harry Beilin, Esquire, asking him to forward the first note to the Israeli Government. The official view here is that the new note will not change the situation much in relation to accepting communications from Britain which are not properly addressed to the Government of the Jewish state.

An Israeli spokesman ridiculed reports of an alleged denial by the U.N. that its observers saw the wreckage of a British plane in Israel. “We have photographs of the observers” viewing the wreckage, he said, Be added that the U.N. has acknowledged receipt of Israel’s protest over the British troop landings in Trans Jordan, but that as yet there were no results from a U.N. investigation requested by the Israeli Government

Fifteen armored vehicles were today released by Haifa port authorities to the U.N. When they first arrived the Israelis held the armored cars until U.N. personnel explained that they were destined for the use of members of the U.N. Conciliation Commission.

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