Arab Leaders Apprehensive over Post-war Status of Palestine, Correspondent Reports

“Arab leaders are apprehensive that Washington may attempt to influence London when the time comes to make a definite settlement of the Arab-Jewish question after the war,” the Christian Science Monitor reports in a dispatch from Cairo by Joseph G. Harrison, the paper’s correspondent with the United Nations’ forces in the Middle East.

“It is apparent,” Mr. Harrison cables, “that the United Nations’ hopes of being able to end the European war before too long a time have given rise to increased diplomatic jockeying throughout the Middle East, since all parties with claims to present to the conference table believe it necessary to be in the best position by the end of the war. This fact undoubtedly is partly responsible for the increase in Arab-Jewish tension in Palestine, and for the greatly heightened interest in the question of Arab unity.”

The correspondent claims that “Arab leaders here and elsewhere complain bitterly” of the caption which Life magazine in New York placed under a reproduction of King Ibn Saud’s anti-Zionist statement which it published recently. This caption declared: “Such a drastic statement will naturally dismay all those who have struggled through the years for some compromise of this most difficult problem. That Ibn Saud’s position is disputable historically, economically, and religiously will be demonstrated by a competent Zionist in pages of Life in a later issue.” The Arabs claim the caption’s wording places Life directly behind the Jewish argument and is bound to affect the opinions of numerous Americans, Mr. Harrison says.