No final action on combatting terrorism in Palestine will be taken until High Commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham, who is now in London, returns there and consults with officers on the spot, informed circles here stated today. Cunningham spent the morning conferring with high officials of the Colonial Office.
It is believed that the imposition of martial law in Palestine would have an adverse effect on the London conference, and the British government will resort to it only if all other measures fail. Political circles report that alternative measures may include halting the movement of all civiliane across Palestine’s frontiers, extended curfews, extraction of collective fines in areas where terrorists operate and the arrest of certain Jewish leaders.
Meanwhile, it has been learned that Cabinet discussions this week have been chiefly concerned with ways and means of inducing the Jews to join the London parley on Palestine. It has been reiterated that the government is bringing no fixed proposale to the conference and that other parties are free to introduce any suggestions they choose.
OPINION OF GOVERNMENT CIROLES BENDING TOWARDS PARTITION
The political commentator of the London Herald, organ of the Labor Party, writes that opinion in government circles is bending toward partition. The Daily Express states that “Downing Strest views partition as the only solution,” but that Britain will refer the Palestine dispute to the United Nations, if the deadlock persists. It calls on the government to surrender the Palestins Mandate, asserting that the conference on Palestine which is to be resumed this month in London “will be stultified by empty chairs” and that “one more effort to solve the problem has failed in advance.”
The liberal Manchester Guardian declares that the immediate and long-range problems of Palestine are interdependent and warns that even a strong minority of the Jewish conmunity may be able to nullify efforts to isolate the terrorists. “If this is the case,” the newspaper says, “it is unlikely that military force alons will be able to suppress terrorism.”
Prof. Norman Bentwich, former Attorney General of Palestine and prominent British Zionist, in an article in the Manchester Guardian welcomes “the practical plan” proposed by Palestine Chief Justice Sir Williem Fitzgerald for the partition of Jerusalem into separate Jewish and Arab boroughs under the control of a British administrative council. Bentwich says that while the execution of the plan will probably be postponed until after the settlement of the larger political issue, it will provide an example of bi-national administration for broad interests and partition for local problems.
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.
