Moscow Doubts Whether Britain Will Agree to Admit 100,000 Jews into Palestine

The opinion that the British Government will not grant the request of President Truman to admit 100,000 Jews into Palestine and will ignore the similar recommendation made by the Anglo-American inquiry committee was expressed today in Pravda, leading Soviet newspaper.

“The British Government,” the paper wrote, “is opposed to the admission of the 100,000 Jews to Palestine, since it believes – and not without reason – that Jewish immigrants entering Palestine under American auspices would increase the American influence there.”

Declaring that “undoubtedly there are signs of British-American rivalry in Palestine,” Pravda said that the “long drawn-out conference on Palestine, which is now taking place in London, will not untie the hard knot of imperialistic contradictions in the Near East.” The article emphasized that Britain does not intend to give up the Palestine mandate. The Palestine problem can be solved “only on the basis of giving all nations the right of self-determination,” Pravda said. It emphasized that Britain did not want to find any solution to the problem.

“After vain efforts of 17 commissions,” the article continued, “the 18th commission was sent out last year to study the Palestine situation. This commission reflects the new post-war situation by containing also Americans as members – Palestine, like the whole Near East, having entered the American sphere of interest. The British Government did not want to share the responsibility with the United Nations but only with the United States. However, the findings of the Anglo-American committee caused a storm of indignation among both Arabs and Jews, and resulted in an increase of internal strife in Palestine.

“The Palestine problem has, during the last few months, became the cardinal one for the British Government,” the article pointed out. “The seriousness and the complexity of this problem lies in the fact that the British ruling circles do not want to give up their hold over Palestine. Therefore, no satisfactory solution is possible. For them, Palestine is primarily a military-political base in the Near East, serving as a stronghold not only for British interests, but also for the United States, which is sending more and more ships to the Mediterranean. Palestine ports are becoming naval bases and also constitute cutlets for oil from Iraq and Transjordan.”

Commenting upon the “acute hostility between Jews and Arabs in Palestine,” the article expressed the belief that both the Jews and the Arabs “could achieve legitimate democratic rights only if the British troops are withdrawn from Palestine.”