A Foreign Off ice spokesman today denied that the failure to halt the 750 armed Arabs who entered Palestine from Transjordan several days ago was a departure from Britain’s announced policy of preventing the importation of arms into Palestine.
Claiming that “containing” the invaders inside Palestine was equivalent to stopping them at the frontier, the spokesman said that it must be left to the military authorities on the spot to deal with the situation as they think best.He added that the recent British oral protest to the Syrian Government regarding the infiltration of Arab troops into Palestine from Syria has been put into writing.
Meanwhile, “political and military” problems affecting Transjordan in connection with Britain’s plans to evacuate Palestine were discussed between Foreign Minister Bevin and Premier Tewfik Pasha Abdul Huda of Transjordan during their first meeting today.
(King Abdullah of Transjordan will take over the Arab state to be established in adjacent Palestine and will abandon his cherished project for a “Greater Syria,” the left-wing Palestine Arab weekly Al Ittihad stated in its first Issue since its suspension a fortnight ago for violating the censorship rules.)
It is understood that King Abdullah’s Greater Syria plan is unlikely to be touched upon during the talks, since the Foreign Office is opposed to the scheme and is anxious to bring Trans Jordan into line with the other Arab states. “Britain is interested in the stability of the Arab League as such rather than la any aggrandizement of its members which may lead to friction within the League,” an authoritative source pointed out.
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