News Brief

Attacks on Zionism and prophecies of a “United States of Arabia” were voiced last night at a dinner of the Arab National league at the Town Hall Club in honor of Amoon Rihani, Arab Nationalist and confident of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.

The speakers included Prog. William Ernest Hocking, of Harvard: Faris S. Malouf, Boston Street Commission; Izzat Tannous, member of the Arab Supreme Committee, and Dr. Fuad I. Shatara, president of the league, who presided. Several of the speeches were broadcast by WNYC, the city-owned station.

Mr. Rihani, who has just completed a nation-wide lecture tour sponsored by the Institute of International Education, spoke of “the yoke of the Balfour Declaration and the mandate” and foresaw a federation of Arab states, including Palestine.

He denounced plans for cantonizing Palestine as springing from Great Britain’s “divide and rule” policy and called it “the flimsiest of all expediencies and most fantastic of exploitations.” He denied that Italy was extending material aid to the Arab nationalist movement.

Mr. Rihani said that the Palestine Arabs “will accept the status quo” of a Jewish community and even aid this community if the three Arab demands, including cessation of Jewish immigration, were complied with. He suggested establishment of a Jewish homeland in the United States, mentioning Texas as a possibility.

Prof. Hocking condemned “the costly and artificial experiment of political Zionism” and urged the justice of the Arab nationalist demands against a “Jewish state” in Palestine.

Mr. Malouf, denouncing “the infamous and invalid Balfour Declaration,” urged the Arabs to free themselves from British and French mandates and establish a “United States of Arabia.” He called on Arab youths in the United States to obtain training here and go to Palestine to help the Arab nationalist movement.