Arab and Jewish Leaders Deny That Tension is Growing in Palestine

The London News Chronicle, which several days ago carried an alarming report from Cairo stating that Arab-Jewish tension in Palestine is developing to a point of possible outbreaks, today carries two statements from Jerusalem denying that trouble is to be expected in Palestine. One of the statements was issued by the Arab leader Auni Bey Abdul Hadi, and the other by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive.

The Arab leader emphasized in his statement that “from the outbreak of the war Arab extremists have remained calm and neutral, believing it inopportune to hamper the British war effort.”

Mr. Ben-Gurion charged in his statement that the articles in the American and British press prophesying civil war in Palestine “are designed to bolster a policy otherwise lacking moral, political or military justification.” Admitting that during war-time certain sections of the population are accustomed to invest in arms that soldiers are occasionally willing to sell, Ben-Gurion asserts that “to represent this as a preconceived Jewish design to organize an uprising during the war is sheer moonshine. In the disturbances of the last twenty years the Jews have not been the aggressors, but have maintained restraint under severe provocation,” he concluded.

A three-day conference of teachers of the Arab language in the Hebrew schools in Palestine concluded today in Jerusalem after hearing reports that Arab-Jewish relations have considerably improved, the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency cables from Jerusalem. The conference discussions while devoted mainly to pedagogical problems stressed that Arab-Jewish antagonism has relaxed and that both sides are arriving at the conclusion that the solution of the disputed problems must be postponed until the war is over.