Britain Publishes “white Paper” on Arms Reaching Middle East

The British Government published today its White Paper on surplus war material finding its way to Middle Eastern countries. While the Eden Government deprecated the use to which British surpluses had been put in the Middle East, it insisted that this flow of war materiel had in no way disturbed the balance of power and the relative strength of the Arab states and Israel. The White Paper will be the subject of a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The White Paper, issued over the signatures of Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd and Defense Minister Sir Walter Monckton, asserted that investigations by the government established that between 50 and 100 old disarmed Sherman tanks, licensed for shipment to France, had reached Israel, and 151 disarmed Valentine tanks and gun platforms shipped from Britain to Belgium had reached Egypt. The surplus materiel which has gone to Egypt and Israel in the course of the last year has been not only relatively small in quantity, but obsolete, ineffective and unreliable for war, the White Paper added.

Israel Ambassador Eliahu Elath called on the Foreign Secretary today to review the Middle East situation. It is understood that in the hour long conversation they covered the ground likely to be raised at the Eisenhower-Eden meeting in Washington at the end of this month. Ambassador Elath understood to have stressed the urgency of supplying Israel with arms to defend itself and to serve as a deterrent against Arab attack.

Speaking at Bradford, Yorkshire, last night, Prime Minister Eden warned that a world war could be touched off easily by hostilities in the Middle East. “There is plenty of dry tinder about, “he said. “Governments should beware lest in trying to undermine long established friendships between others they embroil themselves in graver perils.”