Arab statesmen representing states neighboring on Palestine have let it be known in interested circles that they are prepared to support partition as a solution of the Palestine problem, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned from reliable sources today.
These statesmen, who include representatives of member states of the Arab League, laid down only one condition for this apparently startling reversal of their previous position–that they receive from the British Government some “encouragement” or other indication that this line meets with its approval, an approval not yet forth-coming. According to those informants, Arab statesmen are now willing to support even a “viable Jewish state” in the Jewish part of Palestine with full Jewish control of immigration.
Behind this new attitude, which involves the repudiation of the extremist Palestine Arab demands, are two principal factors: one, the Arab states as a whole are interested in settling the Palestine problem because they are most eager to create peaceful conditions in the Middle East since their overriding sentiment is fear of Russia; and two, leading Egyptian statesmen apparently have come to the conclusion that settlement of the Palestine question through partition would expedite the withdrawal of British troops from Egypt, enabling a successful conclusion to the Anglo-Egyptian treaty negotiations, which Cairo is most anxious to achieve for internal reasons.
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