Lord Reading, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and spokesman for the Eden Government in the House of Lords, told the Upper House today that there must be no delay in reaching a peace settlement in the Middle East. He endorsed Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden’s “compromise” mediation proposal of last month.
Lord Reading asserted that Britain had been looking for a peace settlement formula for years and that it seems that mediation was the best possibility for even beginning to move toward a settlement. He noted that Britain did not seek such an exacting role, but the government felt mediation was in the best interests of the parties concerned.
He rejected a proposal by Laborite Lord Henderson that a United Nations police force be set to patrolling the Israel-Arab frontiers. Further, he objected to a “full dress arms race with the Russians” and insisted that the arms situation made a settlement “vital.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
