It was reliably learned here today that the Cabinet will reconsider within the next two weeks the present plans for terminating the Palestine Mandate and evacuating the country.
The situation will be reviewed in light of the developments in Greece and Palestine and, as usual, opinions are divided between Colonial and Foreign Office circles.
While the Colonial Office officials advocate shortening the British stay in Palestine–partly under Iraqi pressure since intervention in Palestine is impossible as long as the British administration continues to function–and also wish to see the U.N. Commission arrive as soon as possible, the opposite view is held by the Foreign Office which is pressing for postponement of the troops’ evacuation and delaying the Commission’s arrival. It is understood that military circles in Palestine follow the Foreign Office line of thinking.
The hope that the U.N. Commission will come to London en route to Palestine was expressed la authoritative circles today, which emphasized that discussions with Foreign Office experts in London would facilitate arrangements for termination of the Mandate and the evacuation of British troops, since the Foreign Office officials will not participate In the Lake Success meetings of the Commission, as will representatives of the Colonial Office.
ARAB DIPLOMATS IN LONDON PRESSING PLAN TO NEGATE U.H. DECISION
Arab diplomats here, meanwhile, are reported by a reliable British source to be pushing the following five-point plan for defeating the U.N. partition decision with some support from “influential Cabinet ministers.” The plan envisages:
Firstly, the U.N. General Assembly will be called and will postpone the date for implementing partition. Secondly, the Assembly will establish a kind of temporary rule for perhaps 12 months. In the third place, the British will be invited not to evacuate troops completely during this period, but to cooperate with the U.N. in assuring order.
At a later stags, the two remaining points of the program will be put forward by the Arab states. The fourth provides that the Assembly should decide what the partition plan has been found impracticable and must therefore be abandoned. Fifthly, some Kind of solution based on Bevin’s proposal for a “federalized” Pales-tine would be accepted by the Arabs.
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