British Air Minister Denies in Parliament That R.a.f. Planes Flew Only over Israel

British Air Minister Arthur Henderson today denied charges made in Tel Aviv yesterday in an official Israeli statement that British reconnaissance flights–which were climaxed in the shooting down of five R.A.F. craft over Israeli territory Jan. 7–were made over exclusively Jewish-occupied Palestine.

Speaking in Commons, Henderson asserted that high-altitude flights have been carried out by the R.A.F. over the entire Middle East since the end of World War II and said that these flights were part of a training program. He added that since the establishment of the first U.N. Security Council truce for Palestine in June, these flights have been carried out with the knowledge of the U.N. Palestine mediator.

“Information regarding breaches of the truce by either side in Palestine was a matter of importance to the mediator and to His Majesty’s Government,” Henderson stated. He said that 20 R.A.F. flights were carried out during the past two months alone. The details for planning these flights, he added, were left to the decision of local commanders and it was understood that information obtained as a result of these flights was forwarded to the United Nations. These flights have now been stopped,” he declared.

Although he agreed that Israeli ground forces might have mistaken the British craft for Egyptian planes, Henderson insisted that Israeli fighters must have seen the distinguishing marks on the R.A.F. planes. He said, in reply to a question put to him by opposition leader Winston Churchill, that Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin had been consulted on these flights.