Britain to Ask U.N. to Lump Arab Refugees from Palestine with Dp Jews of Europe

The British delegation to the United Nations today revealed unofficially that it will ask the International Refugee Organization to assume responsibility for an estimated 300,000 Arab refugees from Israeli-occupied territory, The United Kingdom delegation also indicated that it will ask the Security Council to recommend this course of action and that the British will suggest that the problem of some 250,000 Jewish refugees in Europe be handled in the same category.

An Israeli spokesman here, commenting on the refusal yesterday of the Trusteeship Council to act on the draft of a Jerusalem international statute, said that this action would seem to indicate that the U.N. is no longer interested in such an inter-national regime for the city. Pointing out that the Jews originally wanted the city as part of their state, he said that the Jews gave way in deference to the pleas made in the name of Christian sentiment. Since then he said the record of indifference plus the U.N. mediator’s suggestion to turn the city over to the Arabs may compel the Jews to reexamine the entire matter.

In a letter to the president of the Security Council, Aubrey Eban, Israeli representative to the U.N. answering points raised by the British delegation in the matter of five Britons arrested in Israel on charges of espionage, stated that the men are being tried under laws promulgated by the British Mandate Administration. Asserting that the Israeli Government does not consider it fitting to comment on the case while it is being considered in the courts, Eban confined his statements to pointing out the legality of the prosecutor’s and the court’s handling of the case.