Bevin Charged with Prejudging Findings of Anglo-american Inquiry Committee

Foreign Secretary Bevin was charged today with preparing the finding of the projected Anglo-American inquiry committee on Palestine by asserting that Palestine alone cannot grapple with the Jewish problem, not even the Jewish refugee problem.

The charge was made by David non-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency, addressing a press conference under the chairmanship of Moshe Shertok, and of the Agency’s political department. He said that Bevin’s statement on Palestine is shocking disappointment, because it continues the British White Paper in a modified form. “Jews will never agree to make the return to their homeland dependent upon anybody else’s consent,” he stated. “They will never renounce their claim for stateland.”

Leading British newspapers today expressed approval of Bevin’s statement and of the creation of an Anglo-American inquiry committee. Some doubts, however, were expressed in connection with the length of time that will be required by the committee to find a solution of the Palestine problem.

The London Times states that the policy enunciated by Bevin deserves full support and “makes a notable advance upon many previous attempts at a settlement. In its determination to face these complex issues from the standpoint of the wider interests of the United Nations it makes a significant contribution to the foundations of international security. From the point of view of the inhabitants of Palestine, Jew and Arab alilve, it holds out a promise of a better era,” the Times says.

The liberal Manchester Guardian asserts that Bevin’s statement reveals that the Government has made a great gain at great cost. “The gain is American willingness to share the responsibilty for the vast human problem; the cost is the almost infinite delay in finding a solution,” the paper says. The time taken to appoint a committee, for the committee to make its investigations and finally to write the report must in practice prolong “for perhaps two years the very situation that now exists in Palestine where Jewish hopes and Arab fears grew fat on the uncertainty,” it adds.

“PATIENCE FROM ALL CONCERNED” IS ASKED; U.S. PARTICIPATION EMPHASIZED

“However magnificent the result may be it must be admitted that there is nothing here to encourage the Jew lying on his palliasse in Belsen or dodging the British army in the mountains of Judea,” the Guardian continues. “The Government should realize that however reasonable it may appear in the seclusion of Downing Street, there is little in this statement to put a stop to liberal Jewish immigration or to calm the unrest in Palestine.”

The conservative Daily Express describes the new Anglo-American committee as offering “the best hope yet of a settlement which has seemed to move further out of reach with each fresh attempt to obtain it.” The association of America with the inquiry is described by the conservative Daily Telegraph as marking a “degree of departure of the United States from the isolationist policy of recent years and follows naturally from President Truman’s recentl intervention when he suggested allowing further immigration into the country of 100,000 Jews. Nobody can say that the United States offers gratuituous and embarrassing advice without undertaking any responsibility. A little further patience from all concerned is a small price to ask for extinction of a potential volcano in world politics” the Daily Telegraph declared.

The conservative Daily Mail states: “The joint inquiry should have several useful results, even before its report is presented. In the first place, this evidence of good faith on britain’s part, backed by America with her fresh angle of approach, should avert serious trouble now threatening in Palestine. If it does not have that effect, the only conclusion will be that the extremists–Jews or Arabs, or both–have a desire for an equitable settlement, but are determined to pursue a policy of aggressive nationalism.”