Britain Opposes Stationing U. N. Troops on Arab Israel Borders

British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd told the House of Commons last night that it would not be practical to establish United Nations military contingents on Arab and Israel borders to secure relaxation of tensions there, but the situation would be helped if UN truce personnel in the area were increased and Britain is pressing the United Nations for such action.

The Foreign Secretary avoided answering a direct question as to what the United Nations can do in the Middle East “to prevent aggression rather than investigate it after it has taken place.” The present situation along the Israel-Arab borders is “serious,” Mr. Lloyd said.

Observers here are expecting a joint Anglo-American pronouncement on the Middle East this week. Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden’s promise to the House of Commons last Thursday that he would see whether he could make a statement on the outcome of the Washington tripartite talks, and the indications from Washington that the Americans have something new to say on the problem of Arab-Israel relations, have been taken as a sign that a simultaneous Eden-Eisenhower statement is in the offing.

British and American officials have been in constant telegraphic diplomatic contact for the past two weeks in the all out effort to agree on a common policy toward the Middle East problem. Foreign Secretary Lloyd and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles are understood to have discussed the matter at length in Karachi. Now–observers conclude “somebody has just got to say something.”

The feeling here, however, is that there will be nothing imaginative, striking, or very new in the Anglo-American statement. Possibly it will go no further than re-affirming the Tripartite Declaration, pointing out that the West will have forces in the area sufficient to check any aggressor and pledging to continue working through the United Nations for a final settlement.