British Government Reaffirms Eden’s “compromise” Proposals to Israel

Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan reaffirmed in Parliament today Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden’s territorial “compromise” proposals to Israel and the Arab states voiced November 9, and called the Eden move “singularly well timed.

Opening a lengthy debate, which is scheduled to be concluded by Sir Anthony, Mr. Mammalian insisted that the only way to peace was through compromise and that Sir Anthony was right when he offered advice on how the problem might be approached. Asserting that both sides were giving sympathetic consideration to Sir Anthony’s ideas, the Foreign Secretary said this was the first time he had heard leading Arab figures take the view that a final settlement must be worked out now. “Serious Arab leaders have begun to realize he continued that the State of Israel is something they must live with.”

The Israel’s he said just like the Arabs will have to make sacrifices for a peace settlement. He said he believed that a more careful consideration has taken place in Israel than is indicated by what Premier David Ben Gurion has said. He said that the thought of the sacrifices required should be balanced by thoughts of “how great the gain could be.” He said the USSR would attempt to break down any hope of settlement, but expressed confidence that neither side would fall into “this trap.”

He turned thumbs down on the idea of a new “unilateral declaration” to assist Israel, averring that the need in the Middle East was for a settlement of the entire problem and that this could not be achieved by adding to the long list of declaratory guarantees already given.

He said the West could not “put the situation right by arming Israel and that it would be foolish” to enter into an arms race at this stage. He pointed out that the Soviet Union had a much larges supply of arms available to send the Arab states and the Soviet Government was not hampered in its foreign policy by either public opinion or Parliamentary control. He warned the Arab states that they were playing with fire when they attempted to play the USSR off against the West.

Herbert Morrison former Foreign Secretary in the late Labor government, suggested that either an agreement be obtained for equal arms supplies to go to the Arab states and Israel or an agreement be reached to keep arms from going to any of the states. Alternatively he suggested, the United Nations must be given the problem to ### Mr. Morrison said the opposition did not object to collective security in the Middle East but it did object to Israel being left out of such arrangements. The failure of the government to reach such an agreement with Israel was encouraging Arab extremists to press for war on an “isolated” Israel, he declared.