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Britain Sends Under-secretary of War to Middle East for Two-week Inspection of Troops

August 3, 1950
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Michael Stewart, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of War, left here today for a two-week tour of inspection of British troops stationed in the Middle East. An official announcement said that he will be concerned mainly with accommodation and welfare facilities for troops in those areas.

A broad hint to the British Foreign Office to stop “bolstering the shaken-up Arab League” was given today by former Colonial Minister Leopold Amery in an article in the London Times. Col. Amery recently returned from an extended visit to Israel and several Arab countries.

Col. Amery emphasizes the need for developing “inter-dependency” between Israel and Jordan. He reperted that both states are willing to come to terms, “but the obstacle so far has been the Arab League and the widespread belief–one can only hope it is a mistaken belief–that the British Government has been anxious somehow to keep that essentially unreal and artificial organization in being.”

Stressing the necessity for joint Middle East defense and development, Col. Amery said: “The material and strategic reasons for Israel’s building up of a true cooperative system in that part of the world are, or should be, conclusive–at least for us.” He urged the maintenance of a strong British force in the Middle East.

“Leading Israelis desire to get back to those relations of mutual cooperation in promoting the welfare of the whole Middle East which underlay the imaginative statesmanship of men like Balfour, Lloyd George, Lord Milner and Marshall Smuts,” the former Colonial Minister writes. “Even in the fighting services of Iarael where the feeling that Mr. Bevin’s policy loaded all the dice against them in 1948 and where there night be expected to be the most bitter feeling, memories of old comradeship in war and genuine admiration for our methods make for a real eagerness to renew close relations.”

Col. Amery concludes by expressing the belief that “nothing would be more warmly welcomed in Israel than an offer of a few places at our three staff colleges and other service and technical establishments.”

A total of 64 Chalutzim proceeded to Israel from England during the first half of 1950, the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency reported today. The young settlers include 37 religious youths affiliated with the Bachad organization.

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