Foreign Undersecretary Mayhew, commenting today in commons on Transjordan’s request for British troops to patrol the Aqaba-Dead ##a area, said that the British Government hopes that a successful conclusion to the Israeli-Transjordan armistice negotiations now taking place at Rhodes would make such action unnecessary.
Replying to a question by Barnett Janner, Laborite M.P., Mayhew added: “So far from the presence of a defense British force at Aqaba impeding negotiations between Israel and Transjordan, the British Government are convinced that it is only the presence of this force which has stabilized the situation and enabled the negotiations to proceed as far as they have now done.”
Mayhew also asserted that “the British force at Aqaba is there at the request of the Transjordan Government, a request with which the British Government were obliged to comply under the Anglo-Transjordan treaty. It has recently been reinforced in view of the advance of Israeli forces to the Gulf of Aqaba so that it should be capable of fulfilling its mission in any circumstances.
Earlier, a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed a report that Transjordan had asked for Royal Air Force assistance in creating a Transjordan Air Force. The spokesman Said the request, which was received some months ago, was still under consideration. The requested assistance would be in pilot training and not provision of equipment, the spokesman added.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
