Gen. Sir Brian Robertson, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in the Middle East, left Israel today following conferences with President Chaim Weizmann, Premier David Ben Gurion and high Israeli military officials. Representatives of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and of the Israel Army took leave of him at the Lydda airfield.
An official dinner in his honor was given last night at the King David Hotel. Extraordinary precautionary measures were taken by the Israel authorities in Jerusalem to prevent Communist demonstrations against the British commander. A small demonstration yesterday by a group of about 100 young Communists was dispersed by the police. The demonstrators carried banners reading “Robertson Get Out, We Will Not Have Any War Bases.”
The extreme Right and Left in the Israeli parliament united last night in an effort to force a parliamentary debate on the policy of the government in inviting Gen. Robertson to visit Israel. At the same time, the Knesset heard heated charges from Communist and Mapam Party spokesmen of “atrocious” police conduct in dispersing demonstrations against the British commander.
Replying to spokesmen of the Communists, the Mapam and the Herut and to the allegations that the British commander was seeking airfields, ports and supply bases in Israel, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett declared: “We are a political and military factor in this part of the world at a crucial moment and we cannot close our doors to anyone or any representative of a foreign power coming to confer with us.”
He proposed reference of the question to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committees. His proposal was carried by a vote of 54 to 21, with the Mapai, the Religious Bloc and the General Zionists supporting and the Herut, Mapam and Communists opposing. On the charges aired against the police in dispersing the demonstrations, the Knesset voted to refer the matter to its Internal Affairs Committee.
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