The Israel Government’s concern over a statement made several days ago in Washington by Secretary of State Dean Acheson defending Britain’s shipment of arms to the Arab states was expressed in a statement issued last night by an authoritative spokesman. (See page 5 for other developments.)
Emphasizing that the situation created by Mr. Acheson’s attitude “is very unfortunate,” the Israel statement said that “heavy rearmament of the Arabs will clearly leave Israel no choice but to increase its defensive capacity to the maximum of its ability.” The statement expressed the hope that the U.S. Secretary of State was not fully aware “of all facts and implications” and that further consideration may lead him to revise his attitude in order to prevent a “calamitous arms race.”
“Mr. Acheson,” the statement says, “defends the shipment of British arms to the Arab states on the ground that they are being supplied under treaty obligation and intended merely for the maintenance of internal law and order in these states and for meeting reasonable requirements of self-defense. This explanation is hardly borne out by the type of arms recently supplied to the Arab states. It is difficult to assert that for the purpose of maintaining internal law and order the Egyptian Government requires destroyers, submarines, dozens of Empire and Moteor jet planes, large quantities of the heaviest types of tanks and artillery as well as many tens of thousands of automatic rifles, much of this from American war surplus in Europe.
“Nor can the establishment of a highly mobile striking power, or the purchase of large armaments plants from Germany, France, Sweden and Italy be motivated by considerations of internal law and security. These heavy armaments can clearly be intended only for the use of external war. It is equally evident, on the other hand, in case of any attack by a major power these arms will be entirely inadequate to defend Egypt. Thus, they are ruled out by the circumstances of the case from serving the two purposes indicated in Acheson’s statement.
“As against this, the possession of these comparatively large quantities of modern arms may clearly facilitate renewed aggression against Israel. This danger is all the greater in the light of innumerable statements which appeared in the Egyptian Arab press, generally indicating the scarcely-veiled intention of resuming hostilities against Israel whenever circumstances are favorable for that course.
“Hardly a week passes without some new threat of the coming ‘second round’ being uttered in the Arab press and radio, and these threats come from by no means negligible quarters. It requires little imagination to picture the effect which the arrival of these large consignments of modern arms must have on these hotheads If, in addition, they now see the responsible head of American foreign policy giving his blessing to this large-scale rearmament, the consequences may be serious to a degree. This seems hardly the way to prevent a renewal of hostilities between the Arab states and Israel which Acheson rightly declares would be a tragic development.”
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