The American and Soviet statements on Palestine probably “mean final defeat of the British plan for Palestine,” Richard Crossman, Labor M.P. and former member of the Anglo-American Palestine Committee, said tonight.
Addressing a dinner meeting of The Nation Associates, Crossman counselled against believing people who say that Britain will not withdraw from Palestine, asserting that the economic crisis at home made withdrawal imperative. He warned that is the U.N. fails to enforce partition, the Haganah will do so the minute the British leave. The Haganah “will carve out the frontiers of a Jewish state” even if the government gives the Arabs every opportunity to mass, he added.
Crossman opposed the establishment of an international volunteer constabulary, as suggested by the U.S., and proposed instead a small force composed of units of the armed forces of several of the smaller U.N. members. He proposed that immediately after partition is approved, all British units should be withdrawn to Gaza and the Jews and Arabs be authorized to police their own areas, while a U.N. commission regulate immigration and supervise administrative and police matters.
(Other speakers at the dinner included Sumner Welles and Bartley Crum, whose addresses were not available when the Bulletin went to press.)
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