Congressional Revolt Against U.S. Switch on Palestine Partition Gains Momentum

The Congressional revolt against the Truman Administration’s reversal on Palestine gained momentum today as a second bill to lift the embargo on arms shipments to the Jews in Palestine was introduced by Rep. Emanuel Celler of How York and several other Congressmen flayed the Administration position.

Meanwhile, Rep. Arthur G. Klein, who was scheduled to introduce a bill today calling for an investigation of the State Department office responsible for Palestine policy, also urged the House to give the investigators instructions to check on the relations between the Arabian American Oil Company and the National Security Council. He also asked for an examination of the role of Dillon Reade and Company land other banking houses in the Middle East.

Republican Rep. Kenneth B. Keating of New York demanded that the President furnish Congress with “facts to replace surmise and rumor” to explain the shift in U.S. policy. He charged that the reversal was “under knuckling to force By Hitler’s tool, the infamous Mufti and his Arab gangsters.” He called on Congress to protest the U.S. change and to urge Britain to open a port for the immigration of homeless Jews from Europe.

(At a press conference in Albany today Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, Republican Presidential aspirant, assailed the Administration for “bungling” in originally favoring partition but not “thinking though the means of carrying it out.” He added: “I prayerfully hope that a sound solution which will preserve the objective of Jewish homeland and a place for the displaced persons will now be developed. Asked if he meanta U.N. trusteeship, he replied, “That’s the proposal now being worked on.”)