Senator Claude Pepper, who has just returned from a four-months tour of Europe and the Middle East, told newsmen today that in his opinion Palestine could accommodate more people.
Pepper spoke to reporters after leaving the White House, where he met with President Truman. He praised the excellent work done in Palestine by the Jewish Agency in improving agriculture and production, and said that the work being done in the Jewish collective colonies was the nearest thing he could imagine to early American pioneering.
While in the Middle East, the Senator said, he spent three days in Saudi Arabia and met with Ibn Saud. Asked whether he had discussed the Palestine question with the Arab monarch, Pepper replied yes, and added that Ibn Saud’s views on the subject were well known. He declared that the Arabs were opposed to Jewish immigration, chiefly because they opposed establishment of a Jewish majority in Palestine.
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