The House of Commons today postponed a debate on the Palestine problem for a week following such a request by Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin who told Parliament that because of the “delicate negotiations” now in progress between Israel and Egypt on the island of Rhodes he did not think that it would be vise for the government to declare its Palestine policy.
Bevin also announced that Jewish refugees interned on Cyprus because they are of military age will now be permitted to go to Israel whenever the Jews provide transport for them, He asserted that a “favorable situation” for the release of these men bad arisen. He added that U.N. mediator Ralph J. Bunche had been informed of this decision.
Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who originally raised the Palestine question and later insisted on a full dress debate next week rather than a statement as Bevin suggested, attacked the Secretary’s action in releasing the Cyprus internees. He insisted that the announcement that “a considerable number of men of military age” are being released from Cyprus in order that they may “join the Jewish forces” did not “fit in very well with drastic military action” taken in the opposite direction.
Bevin retorted that he had bean endeavoring to deal with the Cyprus situation for some time. He also stated that he was not interested in preserving his reputation but in taking all possible actions in behalf of peace. In response to a challenge by Clement Davies, leader of the Liberal Party, who demanded to know why Britain had sent troops to Egypt, Trans Jordan and Palestine in defiance of the Security Council’s resolution of May 29, 1948, Bevin declared that the troops sent to Transjordan were dispatched under the Anglo-Transjordan Treaty and there was no obligation to seek the Council’s assent.
CHURCHILL STRESSES NEED FOR BRITISH RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL
Resuming their personal debate, Churchill asked that the British troops at Aqaba not be permitted to “scuttle away” before the Parliamentary debate on Palestine. He also stressed the need for a British representative in Israel.
Answering the second point first, Bevin said that the question of recognition was “not an easy one” and that the government had to arrive at a decision on the basis of U.N. actions. “With regard to scuttling,” replied the Foreign Secretary, “I think Churchill knows that I am too fat to scuttle from anywhere.”
Barnett Janner, Labor M.P., asked that “no steps of a unilateral nature” be taken pending the Commons debate next week and that no more troops be committed in any action which appears to be aimed at Israel. To this Bevin stated: “The case will never, I repeat never, be settled unless by agreement between the two parties. Force by either side will not finally settle it. There will be no need to move troops at all if both sides keep the truce, and I shall be against either side which breaks it.”
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